As the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, I wake up every day in Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland of our people, surrounded by the hills where our ancestors walked, prayed, and built.
My family and I chose this life not out of provocation, but out of deep conviction that this is our home. Yet week after week, I open news websites, sometimes even outlets that consider themselves pro-Israel or Zionist, and read the same tired headline: “Settler Violence Surges Again.”
The statistics are dutifully cited, the condemnations flow, and the world nods along as if we’ve unleashed some epidemic of terror on peaceful neighbors.
It’s time to pull back the curtain on this absurdity. What exactly are they counting when they tally up “settler violence?” I’ve seen the reports, and I’ve lived the reality. The numbers aren’t just inflated, they’re ridiculous, often capturing everyday Jewish life, security necessities, or outright Palestinian fabrications as if they were pogroms.
Organizations like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), B’Tselem – The Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Yesh Din, along with too many media outlets eager for a balanced-sounding narrative, have turned disputed friction in a conflict zone into a one-sided morality play.
Let’s start with the data. Regavim, that Israeli NGO the EU loves to sanction for telling uncomfortable truths, dug into the UN’s own database of over 6,000 alleged incidents from 2016 to early 2023. The result? Over 86% weren’t violent at all. No injuries, no assaults, just presence, disputes, or nonsense. This is the foundation of the entire global indictment against hundreds of thousands of us “settlers.”
Take the Temple Mount. Every single Jewish visit, quiet, prayerful, often just tourists or families, gets logged as a “violent incident” simply because Jews dare show up at our most sacred site.
In some analyses, this alone accounted for nearly 20% of the tally. Exercising our rights under Israeli law at the site of our ancient Temples is “violence.” This isn’t reporting. It’s propaganda dressed up as statistics.
Consider school trips. Israeli children visiting archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria, learning about their heritage at places like Shiloh or Hebron, are labeled as “intimidation campaigns.” Hikers accidentally wandering onto disputed land? That’s “trespassing violence.”
A traffic accident with an Israeli-plated car? Automatic “settler” fault, no questions asked. State road-building or fence construction for security? Counted as “encroachment.” These are systematic inclusions that pad the numbers, creating the illusion of a crisis.
I’ve read accounts of olive trees “cut by settlers” on land with disputed titles, sometimes after court rulings or mutual vandalism. Trash fires or minor property damage after a terror attack get upgraded to “arson campaigns.” Even Palestinians injured in clashes they started, rock-throwing that provokes a response, land in the settler violence column.
IDF actions against terrorists? Somehow misattributed to us, civilians. The sheer lack of verification is staggering. OCHA and these NGOs often rely on Palestinian eyewitnesses or local activists with zero corroboration, turning unproven claims into international fact.
Don’t get me wrong. Real violence by Jewish extremists – arson, assaults, the rare killing – happens. It’s indefensible, and those responsible should face justice. We don’t shy from that in our communities. But among over 500,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria, these are fringe acts; statistically insignificant compared to the thousands of Palestinian terror attacks, stabbings, shootings, and car rammings we endure yearly.
Why does this distortion persist, even in outlets that write positively about Israel overall? Because it serves a purpose. It allows critics to say, “We support Israel’s right to exist, but…”
It balances coverage of Hamas atrocities with supposed Jewish moral equivalence. It feeds the international community’s discomfort with Jews living, thriving, and claiming our biblical heartland. Presence itself becomes a crime. A Jew building a home, hiking ancient paths, or defending his family is reframed as systematic oppression.
Double standards
I remember when former US president Joe Biden spoke about “extremist settlers” pouring gasoline on the fire. It was during the height of the October 7 aftermath, when our communities were burying our dead and dodging rockets. The outrage was selective. Daily Palestinian attempts, three to six terror incidents a day in the West Bank, barely register. But a bit of graffiti or a temporary roadblock after a murder result in global headlines.
Living here as mayor, I’ve seen the double standard up close. Our towns invest in schools, parks, pools, and community life. We contribute to Israel’s security and economy. We want peace, but not the suicidal kind that ignores reality.
The Palestinians around us have rejected every generous offer, choosing destruction over statehood time and again. Polls show majorities still back Hamas’s methods. Yet we’re the ones painted as the barrier to peace.
The “settler violence” myth isn’t just sloppy journalism; it’s a deliberate blurring that equates routine friction in disputed territory, where both sides have claims, history, and grievances, with unprovoked terror. It ignores the fact that much of the tension stems from Palestinian rejection of Jewish legitimacy anywhere, let alone here in Judea and Samaria.
Archaeological treasures like the Cave of the Patriarchs, Rachel’s Tomb, and ancient Shiloh remind us daily whose land this is at its core.
True friends of Israel, including those in Zionist media, should demand better. Scrutinize the sources. Demand context. Stop letting advocacy groups with clear agendas set the terms. Real violence deserves condemnation wherever it occurs, but inflating numbers to smear an entire community of families, workers, and believers only empowers our enemies.
We settlers aren’t going anywhere. We’re here because this is home – historically, biblically, and morally. The world can keep counting Jewish presence as violence if it wishes.
But the truth is simpler: in a region where terrorism is the daily norm, the real scandal isn’t a few bad actors or disputed herding disputes. It’s the refusal to see the Jewish return to Zion for what it is: a miracle of resilience, not a crime.
The statistics say more about those publishing them than about us. It’s time the narrative caught up to reality.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho.