Photo: The family of 19-year-old Qusay Jamal Matan, who was killed by Israeli settlers in a gun attack, holds a poster with a picture of Matan in Burka village, Ramallah, West Bank, on August 9. (Credit:Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency)
Harun Nasrullah
The United States has, for the first time, called an Israeli settler attack that killed a Palestinian teenager a terror act.
The shift in US State Department language comes as the UN announced on August 5 that it had documented nearly 600 settler-related incidents in the West Bank during the first six months of 2023, a nearly 40 percent increase over the same period last year, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) announced that Israeli settler violence and illegal annexation of Palestinian properties forcibly relocated approximately 500 Palestinians from seven towns in the Occupied West Bank.
“Entire Palestinian communities are being wiped off the map, a shameful legacy of unrelenting violence, intimidation, and harassment perpetuated by Israeli settlers and, in some cases, encouraged by Israeli authorities,” said Ana Povrzenic, NRC’s country director for Palestine.
“The rapid establishment of settlement outposts and takeover of Palestinian land is choking Palestinian communities, destroying their livelihoods, and putting Palestinian lives at risk. Palestinians have no choice but to flee, leaving behind their homes, schools, and jobs.”
Following intensified settler harassment and intimidation, a dozen families totalling 89 Palestinians, including 39 children, were forcibly relocated from Ras At-Tin, northeast of Ramallah, earlier this month.
Israeli squatters took over the grazing areas of the community and planted a vineyard near an Israeli military base. Residents of Ras At-Tin were denied access to their lands by Israeli forces.
Some 60 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank are at heightened risk of forcible transfer due to Israeli settler and soldier violence, illegal settlement expansion, and Israel’s deeply discriminatory policies and practices, including its unlawful planning and zoning regime.
“Without holding Israel accountable, more and more Palestinian communities will be forcibly transferred,” warned Povrzenic. “How many more Ras At-Tins must there be before the international community acts?”
The US State Department said its use of the word “terror” to describe an Israeli settler attack that killed 19-year-old Qusai Jamal Maatan reflected the Biden Administration’s “great concern” about the West Bank violence.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on August 5 that a group of Israeli settlers fatally shot Maatan and wounded several others in an attack on the outskirts of Burqa, a village in the central West Bank near Ramallah.
Residents said that the clashes broke out after settlers from the nearby Oz Zion illegal outpost brought a herd of sheep to graze on Palestinian land. The residents accused the settlers of vandalising property, throwing stones, and shooting at Maatan and others.
Israeli police said they arrested two settlers and detained five Palestinians over the violent altercation. In a tweet, the State Department called the shooting a “terror attack.”
“We strongly condemn yesterday’s terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers that killed a 19-year-old Palestinian,” the tweet said.
“The US extends our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones.”
The department has previously referred to terrorist attacks against Israelis, but this appeared to be its first use of the label to describe settler violence targeting Palestinian civilians. “It was a terror attack,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said. “We are concerned about it, and that’s why we called it that.”
The tweet “made clear our position on terrorist attacks and extremist settler violence,” Miller said. “We have also been clear that accountability and justice should be pursued with equal vigour in all cases of extremism, whoever the perpetrators are.”
Miller noted that Israel detained two settlers, which he called “appropriate action”.
However, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on August 8 that the suspects should be freed pending possible prosecution.
The court ruled that one should be released to house arrest, while the other will be kept in the hospital, where he is being treated for a head wound.
