Letter: Response to Misleading Picture of Israeli Settlers in Judea and Samaria

Dear editor:

Ed Kass wrote to Boulder Jewish News on November 14 (Letter: As George Put It: “It Ain’t Necessarily So”) lambasting Jewish Israeli settlers and our November 2 speaker from Judea, Natalie Sopinsky.   His letter was full of misinformation and baseless accusations. He cites B’Tselem which has long been anti-Israel (see NGO Monitor, CAMERA-Israel and Honest Reporting). Numerous articles on the Internet detail the inaccuracies and bias of the movie he mentions, “No Promised Land.” The film has been called “a propaganda triumph” and a “distorted narrative.”

I suppose I can understand why even some pro-Israel Jews have negative views of “settlers” since the news on the left and right usually portrays them negatively and fails to give the whole story.

Here is some context and true information.

1. The League of Nations allocated all of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for Jewish settlement in 1922. After the establishment of modern Israel in 1948, Jordan illegally occupied the area until Israel liberated the region in the 67 war. 

2. The Oslo Accords of 1993-1995 designated 3 areas for this region. Area A under Arab control is too dangerous for Israelis to enter because of Arab death threats. Area C under Jewish control has,however, 200,000 Arabs. The Oslo Accords were supposed to be an interim agreement until negotiations could lead to a long-term settlement. Sadly this has not been possible because of constant Palestinian attacks. The Accords made no mention of a Palestinian state.

3. Judea and Samaria have been the Jewish heartland for thousands of years from the Israelites in biblical times until modern times. They are also the key to Israel’s security against hostile neighbors.

4. There have been numerous illegal land grabs by Palestinians in Area C in an attempt to take more Jewish land. These land grabs are funded by the Palestinian Authority and anti-Israel activist groups and sometimes ignored by the Israeli police. When one of these land grabs is established, Palestinian terror often increases.

5. Kass asserts that Sopinsky’s town of Susya has been a Palestinian town since 1830. Yet the official census of Palestine in 1922 and in 1931 by the British show no Arab village of Susya. Actually the trend is Muslims taking over Jewish or Christian towns. Bethlehem which we know was historically a Christian town is now 90% Muslim. Shechem, originally a Jewish town, is now Nablus, notorious as a hub of Arab terrorism.

6. Kass admits that Sopinsky’s group, Rescuers Without Borders, does good work, but he suggests she might support terrorism because of her support for Israeli charity, One Israel Fund, which  helps residents of Judea and Samaria medically, socially, educationally and with security. Those accusations are absurd! Kass’ source here is Haaretz, an Israeli news source not known for being pro-Israel. A  quick look at the internet shows these headlines about them: ‘inaccurate reporting” and “disregards the facts and distorts the truth.”

What about the “violent Jewish settlers?” Some have called this accusation a blood libel.

1. Many of the complaints of violence are made by just one Palestinian. Half come from foreign anti-Israel activist groups. Unfortunately, many news sources then report these incidents without verification.

2. Israeli NGO Regavim reports that “90% of incidences of violence attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the U.N. were fabricated.” The 90% includes incidents that didn’t even happen in Judea and Samaria or were entirely peaceful such as visits by Jews to their holy sites, civilian hikes, car accidents or infrastructure work. Although there are some cases of Jewish settlers attacking Palestinian Arabs, most of the incidents that are violent involve Arabs attacking Jewish settlers who fight back in self-defense. These Palestinian attacks include arson, car-rammings, rock throwing and stabbings.

3. Rescuers Without Borders reports that Palestinian terrorists attacked Jewish settlers at least 6,343 times in 2024. We don’t hear about most of these attacks, and we rarely hear of the many times when these acts of terror were thwarted- 1,040 in 2024 alone. Just this month (November 2025) a huge attack planned by 50 Hamas terrorists in Bethlehem was discovered and stopped. Another attack in Gush Etzion, also this month, unfortunately was not prevented. It involved both car-ramming and stabbing. One Israeli was killed and three wounded. Several explosives were found in the terrorists’ car. Did you hear about either of these incidents?

Mimi Ito
Boulder