Israel: 92% of Jewish Hate Crimes Against West Bank Palestinians Never Brought to Justice

Human rights group Yesh Din has revealed that some 92% of Palestinian complaints of Jewish hate crimes in the occupied West Bank are closed and the criminals never brought to justice.

The organisation has been tracking 1,045 complaints filed to it by Palestinians since 2005, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

The complaints include a variety of offences such as arson, the cutting down of trees, stone-throwing, construction on Palestinian land, shootings, assault, crop theft, violent threats and attacks.

The statistics, collated from 2013 and 2014, caused the rights group to condemn the Israeli fight to battle nationalistic crimes as "hollow".

They said that the statistics prove that the creation of a Judea and Samaria District Police unit in the West Bank led to no improvement in investigations in Jewish hate crimes; in fact this has actually led to an increase in failed investigations into crimes against Palestinians.

"The statistics prove that the high-flown statements about the fight against nationalistically-motivated crime were hollow," says Noa Cohen, data coordinator at Yesh Din's research department.

"The new department has not improved by one iota the law-enforcement authorities' ability to investigate and prosecute criminals suspected of harming Palestinians, and ideologically-motivated crime in the West Bank continues to serve as a tool of intimidation and the takeover of land."

"The Israel Police has not yet received the report, so no comment about the data can be made," said a spokesman for the Judea and Samaria District Police.