Settler violence threatens Israel’s rule of law, international standing, legal expert tells ‘Post'

Unchecked settler violence risks undermining Israel’s rule of law, damaging its international standing and weakening international support for its efforts to curb the Palestinian Authority’s payments to convicted terrorists, while increasing the risk of sanctions and travel restrictions against settlers, Professor Yuval Shany, the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law and a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Shany’s remarks came days after extremist settlers attacked a European delegation and an American photojournalist in two separate incidents. Though 10 suspects have been detained for the attack, the issue of growing violence from extremist settlers has been widely discussed by the international community as a cause of concern.

Settler violence in the West Bank has increased in both frequency and severity in recent years. The number of attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces rose by 27% in 2025 compared with the previous year, while severe incidents of nationalist crime increased by more than 50%, according to IDF and Shin Bet data released in January 2026. The rise in violence comes amid a longstanding record of limited prosecutions. Between 2005 and 2024, 93.8% of the 1,701 police investigation files monitored by Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din were closed without an indictment, while just 3% resulted in a full or partial conviction, according to the organization.

“In principle, Palestinians could go to the Supreme Court and ask for enhanced state protection, and also for the state to compensate them for its negligence in providing them security. And in theory, they could also bring civil cases against identifiable settlers who have damaged their property. ... Many of these Palestinian families do not have the means to actually hire legal [representation]. ... There is a question of whether such legal assistance is available, and also the question of whether they have trust in the Israeli legal system to protect their interests…,” Shany said.

“Even when the court sides with Palestinians occasionally, it's very difficult to actually enforce these decisions. So, in theory, yes, there are legal avenues that can be utilized. They are sometimes being utilized, but so far the effect has been quite marginal on the ground.”

Violence can prevent implementation of court decisions

As Shany noted, even when Israeli courts rule in favor of Palestinians, violence on the ground can prevent those decisions from being implemented. He pointed to the case of the Tubasi family, whose home the High Court of Justice ordered the IDF to secure after the family was forced to leave in July following harassment by extremist settlers.

When the military attempted to facilitate the family’s return, more than 100 extremist settlers attacked IDF forces, preventing the family from returning home. “Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their homes was not completed,” the military said at the time.

The refusal of extremist settlers to abide by the law led prominent Israeli journalist and lawyer Ben-Dror Yemini to describe them in a Ynet opinion article as “Israel’s homegrown Hezbollah.” The comparison drew on Lebanon’s struggle to disarm the Iran-backed group and prevent it from dragging the state into wars through attacks against Israel carried out without state approval.

While Shany rejected the characterization, he stressed that Israel’s failure to uphold the rule of law does not absolve other countries of their own obligations. Nevertheless, he said, “in the court of public opinion, it doesn't do Israel much favor to have anarchy in territories it controls and criticize other states for also having anarchy in their own territories.”

Shany stressed that Israel has an obligation under international law to curb the violence, regardless of its position on the legal status of the territories.

“If Israel continues to fail its obligations, it will increasingly face threats of sanctions by third states, which see this as an issue with humanitarian consequences and broader international peace and security implications, because this could send the whole region into a more explosive dynamic,” he said. “So we will probably see more attempts by European countries to sanction Israel, as we saw last month with the 12 states that took this position.”

In September, the United Kingdom announced a ban on goods imported from Israeli settlements, while 11 other countries said they intended to introduce national restrictions or support broader European measures against settlement-produced goods.

Such measures could have economic consequences for Israel by restricting access to foreign markets and affecting businesses operating in settlements. According to the Israel Policy Forum, Israel exported at least $15 billion in goods and services to the 12 countries in 2024. Goods originating in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights accounted for just short of $45 million of Israeli exports to the UK in 2025.

Sanctions likely to be placed on Israel

Shany warned that further measures could follow, including initiatives at the UN to impose sanctions on Israel and restrict goods and services originating in the territories, as well as potential legal action through international courts.

Beyond the economic impact, the diplomatic fallout could affect how international actors view Israel’s efforts to curb the Palestinian Authority’s payments to prisoners and families of Palestinians involved in attacks, Shany said.

Israel has withheld clearance revenues collected on behalf of the PA, including deductions linked to payments to prisoners and their families, as well as amounts equivalent to funds previously transferred to Gaza. Israel has also enacted legislation providing for compensation to victims of terrorism through deductions from PA revenues and advanced plans for new housing units in the E1 area near Jerusalem.

“There would be a growing view among European countries that the combined effect of these measures is not to motivate the Palestinian Authority to take the allegations against it regarding support for families of terrorists more seriously, but rather to bring about its financial collapse and move further away from a two-state framework,” Shany said.

“The E1 construction plans, along with the violence, are seen as part of this pincer movement by Israel. I think this would encounter increasingly stronger resistance and perhaps efforts by European countries to find other ways to support Palestinian sovereignty.”

Shany also predicted growing efforts by grassroots organizations to pursue legal action against settlers abroad, drawing a parallel with the Hind Rajab Foundation’s efforts to bring complaints against IDF soldiers over alleged crimes in Gaza.

“I'm pretty certain that the weak response by the current Israeli government to this violence is going to also put some wind in the sails of those sorts of initiatives,” he said. “So we may see renewed attempts to go directly after settlers in terms of trying to freeze their assets and to introduce movement restrictions on them.”