Israeli police fail to probe settler violence: report
Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:37am ET
By Luke Baker
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Nearly all investigations by Israeli police into reports of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians end in failure, a report by an Israeli human rights group said on Monday.
In a year-long study of the actions of the Israeli police in the West Bank, rights group Yesh Din found that 90 percent of investigations into settler violence against Palestinians failed because files were lost or closed due to "lack of evidence".
Yesh Din was unable to give comparative figures for the percentage of cases that end in failure in Israel.
The police said they were studying the report and would make changes if need be, but that all efforts were made to investigate crimes and record testimony from witnesses.
In a separate case, a Jerusalem court handed down a rare conviction of a Jewish settler on Monday, finding him guilty of murdering four Palestinian workers in a shooting last year.
In its report, Yesh Din said its findings and other similar studies showed that "Israel is abusing its obligation to defend the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories against the criminality of Israeli civilians".
"Failures abound in all stages of law enforcement in cases of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank," Yesh Din (Hebrew for "there is law") said in its 148-page report.
The privately-funded group takes no official position on the legality of West Bank settlements, branded illegal by the World Court, but says it is worried by human rights violations as a result of the occupation.The Israeli police force in the West Bank ultimately falls under the command of the Israeli army, which has occupied the territory since the 1967 Middle East war.
Yesh Din said the police had failed on several counts, including not taking testimony from key witnesses, rarely conducting identification line-ups of Israeli suspects and not checking Israeli alibis.
The study examined 92 cases since 2002 and found that of the 71 that were concluded, 83 percent were closed because of lack of evidence or on other grounds, and seven percent were lost. Indictments were made in the other cases.
PROCEDURES REVIEWED
In a response to Yesh Din's findings, the chief superintendent of the Israeli police force in the West Bank said all efforts were made to investigate crimes and record witness testimony, and said procedural reviews were often carried out.
"We are presently studying the report and the comments made and, as a learning organization, we will amend whatever requires amendment (if anything)," said Superintendent Moshe Pintzy.
About 240,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, mostly in heavily fortified enclaves, among the 2.4 million Palestinian residents. Settlers have greater freedom of movement on many roads than Palestinians have.
Clashes between both are frequent, with Palestinians and settlers both accusing each other of setting them off. Yesh Din did not have figures for how many complaints were filed by settlers against Palestinians.
Settlers have been frequent targets of armed attacks by militants since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000.
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