Photo: Settler violence in Masafer Yatta – Palestine Return Centre
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
8pm (Jerusalem), 6pm (UK) 1pm (EST)
Settler violence in the West Bank has surged since 7th October 2023 while the world’s attention has focused on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palestinians living in the rural parts of Area C are most vulnerable.
The attacks often result in injury, damage to homes, and structures vital for living. Even schools and mosques have been targeted. Fields have been burned, trees uprooted, and animals have been stolen. In some situations, the violence has become so intolerable that the Palestinians have left which is the goal so that more land is cleared for the expansion of Jewish-only settlements.
But setter violence does not only occur in Area C. Extreme religious settlers seek to displace Palestinians living in Hebron where the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, near the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Tomb of the Patriarchs) is located). Even Hebron’s main street, Shuhadah, has been closed off to Palestinians who live there so they cannot access their front door from the street.
Attend this one-hour webinar to receive the latest updates on settler violence, why it has intensified, and how this phenomenon is being resisted.
Speakers
Issa Amro lives in Hebron, in the H2 area which is under military control and where extreme Jewish Israeli religious settlers also reside. In 2007, Issa founded Youth Against Settlements which seeks to end the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements through non-violent popular struggle and civil resistance. Youth Against Settlements trains youth in peaceful direct actions, documents human rights violations, leads tours of Hebron and the vicinity for international delegations and offers political briefings for diplomats and journalists. As a result, Issa has been arrested and tortured by the Israeli occupation forces but prosecuted as well by the Palestinian Authority. Amnesty International and the United Nations have recognized Issa as a Human Rights Defender. Issa has been nominated, along with ICAHD’s Jeff Halper, for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian parliamentarian Ingrid Friskaa.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman is a Reform rabbi who led Rabbis for Human Rights for 21 years and since 2017, has led Torat Tzedek. Rabbi Ascherman’s niche has been to work for universal human rights as a Jewish religious obligation, and to present the foundation for this obligation in Jewish sources. Rather than remaining behind a desk, he has always believed that in the human rights field we must have one foot in the grassroots, and the other among the decision and opinion makers. Where necessary, Rabbi Ascherman is willing to put his body on the line. He has been attacked and injured by Israeli settlers and has been tried for civil disobedience. He is the recipient of several humanitarian and peace awards.