Israel has equipped thousands of settlers with military firearms and uniforms and given them lethal powers without adequate oversight mechanisms. Shootings, violent assaults, trespassing, theft and property damage are only some examples of the types of offenses Israeli civilians have committed against Palestinians behind the shield of military-issued firearms and uniforms over the past two years. The perpetrators were settler-soldiers on military duty who were abusing their authority, settler-soldiers on leave acting outside any official mission, or settlers in uniform acting on their own initiative.

Regional defense units, civilian security coordinators and emergency response teams are part of the civilian-military security apparatus of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This report does not claim to analyze this security doctrine or examine its merit, but rather to point to the dangerous implications of this system and the lack of oversight. The report presents and analyzes how Israeli citizens abuse the power and authority that come with military uniforms and firearms to commit offenses and harm Palestinians.

Members of armed forces are expected to act in the name of the law and in accordance with the military commander’s obligations. They wear uniforms in order to be identifiable and provide visual confirmation that they hold authority. In contrast, when civilians wear uniforms without authorization or exceed their authority while wearing them, they are, quite literally, taking the law into their own hands, creating the false appearance of belonging to the military and abusing the power that comes with the uniform.

The incidents featured in the report are only a tiny sample of a multifaceted practice used to illustrate how settlers in uniform harm Palestinians: a soldier on leave who decides to put on a uniform and use a firearm; a civilian security coordinator who operates outside their assigned area; regional defense soldiers who exceed their authority; or settlers who impersonate soldiers. In practice, it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between a regional defense soldier, a member of an emergency response team or a settler who independently decided to put on a uniform. It is certainly impossible to know whether the person is a soldier on active reserve duty or a civilian who put on a uniform and decided to take the law into their own hands. As far as Palestinian victims know, their assailants are Israelis in uniform, representing the law in the occupied territory.

Israeli authorities, for their part, encourage ‘settler in uniform’ violence against Palestinians not only by distributing uniforms and firearms, but also by failing to enforce the law on offenders. When complaints are filed against these assailants, law enforcement authorities usually attempt to evade their responsibility to investigate the incident. The Military Advocate General’s Corps claims the violence was not carried out in the course of military activity and, therefore, the incident does not fall under its jurisdiction. The Israel Police, on the other hand, closes investigation files or claims it has no jurisdiction to investigate because the acts were perpetrated by people in military uniform.

Although many of the settlers who were mobilized at the beginning of the war into emergency response teams and regional defense battalions are no longer on active reserve duty, the military has allowed them to retain the firearms and uniforms, advancing two outcomes Israel seeks. In addition to the original goal of regional defense, whereby these settlers serve as auxiliary forces assisting security personnel in protecting Israeli civilians living in West Bank settlements, the settlers’ criminal use of military-issued firearms and uniforms to harm Palestinians and drive them off their land contributes to Israel’s broader objective of seizing more land in the West Bank and annexing the territory without its Palestinian residents.

Settlers in Uniform demonstrates that Israel consistently, and as a matter of policy, enables the deliberate blurring of lines between settlers and military forces and promotes violent actions against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank by militias working in the service of settlement interests. These practices run counter to Israel’s obligations under international law as the occupying power in the West Bank and gravely violate the human rights of Palestinians living there.