A/HRC/40/42
attackers, Israeli security forces intervened by pointing their guns at him, at which time the
settlers left. On 12 September 2018, two settlers in their teens attacked two Palestinian boys
aged 10 and 12 with pepper spray. The Israeli police apprehended the assailants and the
families of the boys filed a complaint with the police. As at the end of the reporting period,
none of the victims had been informed whether investigations had been opened.
30.
Some of the peaks in settler violence against Palestinians recorded this year occurred
within two or three days after the killing of settlers by Palestinians and were presumably
perpetrated in retaliation. 52 Other incidents have been attributed to a practice known as
“price tag”, aimed at punishing Palestinians for the removal, by the Israeli authorities, of
structures in settlement outposts. Since the beginning of 2018, a number of such removals
were reported in small settlement outposts associated with radicalized settler youths in
Nablus Governorate.53
B.
Freedom of movement and access to land and confiscation of private
property
31.
A range of factors restrict Palestinians’ access to and use of their land and property
and facilitate gradual takeover of land, such as violence or threats by settlers or civilian
security coordinators, settler agriculture and herding on Palestinian land and Israeli security
force restrictions on access to areas near settlements.
32.
In August 2018, the Government announced its intention to triple the size of the
jurisdiction of the new settlement of Amihai 54 to include the outpost of Adei Ad as a way of
retroactive authorization.55 Adei Ad is a part of the “Shiloh corridor” in the northern West
Bank, composed of several settlements and outposts from which Palestinians were driven
away through settler violence, intimidation and unlawful activity that resulted in multiple
human rights violations. 56 Should the corridor be completed, it will further prevent
Palestinian farmers from accessing their lands, restrict their freedom of movement and
obstruct territorial continuity of the West Bank. 57
33.
Adei Ad, placed partially on private Palestinian land, has been a centre of settler
violence in the area for many years. 58 In the reporting period, the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Yesh Din combined reported 12 incidents of
settler violence against property or Palestinians in the villages of Turmusaya, Jalud and
Mughayir, all of which are close to the outpost. In October 2018, settlers destroyed 280
olive trees in three different areas, which Palestinians can only access after “prior
coordination” with Israeli authorities (see para. 36), due to their proximity to Adei Ad.
Yesh Din documented how settlers unofficially annexed land around Adei Ad in 28
instances by fencing plots, preventing access or expelling Palestinian farmers from their
land, and cultivating plots while trespassing without the knowledge or agreement of the
owners. This took place over a number of years on land that Palestinian owners could no
longer access due to Israeli security forces restrictions or for fear of settler attacks. 59
Consequently, some Palestinians had to move away. According to the Jalud village council,
60 people left the village after the Shiloh settlement and surrounding outposts progressively
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
8
Ibid., Humanitarian Bulletin: Occupied Palestinian Territory, October 2018.
Removals of structures took place in Ma’oz Ester, Havat Ma’on, Geulat Zion and Rosh Yosef. Ibid,
note 33.
Amihai was established for the settlers evacuated from the illegal settlement of Amona in the northern
West Bank. See para. 11.
Yotam Berger, “Israel seeks to triple size of isolated West Bank settlement in order to legalize
outpost”, Haaretz, 8 August 2018.
A/70/351, paras. 52–69.
Yesh Din, The Road to Dispossession: A Case Study – The Outpost of Adei Ad (2013), p. 45.
Monitoring by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and OHCHR; and Yesh Din,
ibid. Adei Ad outpost is placed partially on lands belonging to the villages of Turmusaya, Qaryut, Al
Mughayir and Jalud.
Yesh Din, ibid., p. 58.
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