Samaria Council report: UN presents attacks against Jews as ‘settler violence’

A widely-used United Nations report on an alleged increase in “Settler-related violence’ against Arabs in Judea and Samaria contains a large amount of false and misleading information, according to an investigation by the Samaria Regional Council and other organizations.

The report, which can be found on the website of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was found to include attacks committed by Arabs against Jews in addition to attacks by Jews against Arabs in its definition of ‘Settler-related violence,’ a classification that obscures the issue of antisemitic violence while making anti-Arab violence appear more common than it actually is.

The council noted in its announcement that according to data collected by the IDF Central Command and the police, nationalist violence and crimes committed against Jews far outnumber the number of nationalist crimes committed by Jews. In addition, the nationalist crimes committed against Jews tend to be of a more serious and violent nature than the nationalist crimes committed by Jews.

174 violent incidents and crimes were recorded in October 2022. In October 2023, that number fell to 119, the vast majority of which did not rise to the level of an attack.

The total number of terrorist incidents committed by Palestinian Arabs against Jews in Judea and Samaria in 2023 is 5,673, of which 1,641 were classified as serious attacks such as shooting attacks, stabbings, ramming attacks, throwing explosives, and more.

Arab attacks against Jews were found to outnumber Jewish attacks against Arabs by about six to one.

The Samaria Regional Council noted that the UN’s flawed and misleading figures were cited by Politico, USA Today, Business Insider, and CNN and were even quoted in a special report on the Hamas – Israel war by the British Parliament.

US President Joe Biden has spoken out multiple times in recent months about the phenomenon of ‘settler violence’ and his administration this month announced a visa ban on “extremist settlers” who are accused of attacking Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan is expected to send the full report to the prime minister, the defense minister, the UN Secretary-General, and the White House, and he intends to demand clarification and correction of the statements issued by the White House and the UN based on this data.

“This report is unequivocal proof that the ‘settler violence’ campaign is an antisemitic campaign for all intents and purposes, aimed at harming the State of Israel. The false campaign was created for this reason and led to serious decisions by the American government, including the call not to approve visas for residents of Judea and Samaria who are suspected of friction with the Palestinian population, a decision that was not made even against murderers and rapists from around the world. The decision to present all cases of violence in Judea and Samaria against settlers in the West Bank as ‘settler violence’ is an unprecedentedly serious act and a flagrant violation of any ethical code, which gives rise to an antisemitic campaign against the Jews in Judea and Samaria with the blessing and encouragement of the United Nations,” said Dagan.

Dagan clarified: “We demand that the UN website delete these false and shameful data and publish a clear apology. We demand that the data on the number of Palestinian terrorist incidents against Israelis, 5 times more terrorist incidents against Israelis and 31 (!) times more serious terrorist incidents – be published on the UN website and condemned. We expect the immediate response of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to this criminal act, as well as the President of the United States, together with the Secretary of State, to retract the serious accusations they made against the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria. We demand that the prime minister also address the issue; we are sorry that we had to discover this ourselves and we did not receive this protection from the government itself.”