Israel is using violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank to drive Palestinians off their land in the West Bank, an Israeli human rights group charged Sunday.
The group, B’Tselem, detailed the seizure of nearly 30 square kilometers (11 square miles) of crop or grazing land over the past five years by settlers.
B’Tselem also rejected government arguments that the violence is the work of a small minority of settlers, and that security forces are doing everything in their power to curb the violence.
Violence by Jewish residents against Palestinians in the West Bank has been on the rise in recent months. Last week, a group of Jewish settlers vandalized cars in Ramallah and in September, Jewish settlers attacked a Bedouin village in the southern West Bank, leaving several people injured, including a small child.
B’Tselem denounced that the military does not prevent attacks and in some cases even participates in them. He also complained that police forces rarely punish settlers and minimize the cases they do deal with.
