JERUSALEM
An Israeli NGO said Monday that 94 percent of Israel's investigations into attacks on Palestinians by extremist Jewish settlers ended "without any indictments," going on to lament Israeli police "indifference" regarding such assaults.
"Despite their legal obligations, the reality is that Israeli security forces in the West Bank frequently participate – or stand idly by – while violence against Palestinians is being committed," Yesh Din, an Israeli NGO that tracks and documents Jewish settler assaults on Palestinians, said in a statement.
"Behind this indifference is a pervasive culture of impunity maintained by the various Israeli authorities operating in the West Bank," the NGO said.
Yesh Din contends these assaults are not "isolated incidents," going on to assert that "this brand of violence is part of a sophisticated, wider strategy designed to assert territorial domination over West Bank Palestinians".
Research conducted by the NGO found that nearly 94 percent of the Israeli army's criminal investigations of soldiers suspected of committing violent acts against Palestinians and their property end "without any indictments".
"In the rare cases that indictments are served, conviction leads to very light sentencing," Yesh Din noted.
Israeli police officials could not be reached for immediate comment on the NGO's assertions.
Recent months have seen an uptick in violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, which has led to deaths and injuries on both sides.
Several Israelis have been killed or injured in increasingly frequent Palestinian attacks.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, continue to carry out raids on West Bank villages, frequently rounding up groups of young Palestinian men on claims they are "wanted" by Israeli authorities.
What's more, Israeli troops typically use force to disperse weekly Palestinian rallies against the self-proclaimed Jewish state's decades-long occupation, occasionally leading to deaths among protesters.
Palestinians also decry frequent attacks by extremist Jewish settlers on their communities and property in the occupied territories.
