The Laundromat of Lies: How EU Cash and UN Incompetence Created Sanctions on Israel

In early 2024, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14115, introducing unprecedented economic sanctions. Under the blow of the U.S. Treasury, followed by the governments of the UK, Canada, and the EU, it was not terrorist cells that were targeted, but Israeli citizens and organizations in Judea and Samaria. The official justification: a sharp spike in “settler violence.”

The foundation for these decisions was provided by multi-year UN reports. However, today we are talking about a highly important internal investigation that everyone needs to know about. A report titled “הותר לשיסוי” (Permitted to Incite / Allowed to Target), published by the Regavim movement in April 2025, thoroughly analyzes and refutes the narrative of so-called “settler violence.” The central thesis of the report is that this concept is an artificially manufactured, meticulously planned, and lavishly foreign-funded campaign designed to delegitimize Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the IDF, and the State of Israel as a whole, with the ultimate goal of forcing the creation of a Palestinian state.

1. Refuting UN (OCHA) Data

The report meticulously deconstructs the UN (OCHA) database, which claims thousands of incidents of “settler violence.” Regavim analyzed a list of 8,332 such incidents spanning from January 2016 to April 2023 and discovered massive distortions:

Irrelevant locations: 20% (1,704 incidents) occurred entirely outside Judea and Samaria, mostly in Jerusalem, and have no relation to “settlers.”
Peaceful activities: 16% (1,361 cases) consist of lawful visits by Jews to the Temple Mount or clashes between Muslims and police on the Temple Mount.
Absence of violence: 19% (1,613 cases) represent general complaints of “trespassing on land” during hiking trips, without any damage to property or health. Lawful state actions—such as road construction, the demolition of illegal structures, and declaring land as state property—were also equated with “violence.”
Absurdly categorizing terrorists as victims: The UN officially acknowledges that it includes Palestinians who were killed or injured while actively committing terrorist attacks (e.g., attempting to stab Israelis or throwing Molotov cocktails) into its lists of “victims of settlers.”
Distorting the role of the IDF: Up to 99% of Palestinians listed in the database as casualties were actually injured or killed during clashes with Israeli security forces, not civilian settlers.
Questionable sources: About 12% of the incidents rely on a single source of information, often UN-affiliated structures or biased NGOs.

After filtering out all fabricated and irrelevant cases, only about 10% of the list remained (833 incidents over 7.5 years, or fewer than 10 per month) that could actually be classified as physical violence.

To reiterate: Up to 99% of Palestinians listed in the database as casualties were actually injured or killed during clashes with Israeli security forces, not civilian settlers.

The video shows a mob of Arab teenagers pelting stones at an Israeli soldier, who does not use his weapon.

2. Real Data from the Israel Police

The report draws on official data from the Israel Police spanning 2014–2024. Contrary to the claims of radical left-wing NGOs (such as “Yesh Din”) regarding “insufficient law enforcement” toward Jews, the statistics show the exact opposite:

Three times as many indictments for nationalistic crimes are filed against Jews compared to Arabs.
At the same time, the conviction rate for Jews in Judea and Samaria (31% ) is significantly lower than for Arabs (56%). This indicates selective, more stringent law enforcement against Jews, as well as a massive volume of false complaints that never make it to court.
Specifically, during the onset of the “Swords of Iron” war, police confirmed that 73% of complaints lodged by left-wing organizations and anarchists regarding “settler violence” turned out to be false upon investigation.

To reiterate: 73% of complaints filed by left-wing organizations and anarchists regarding “settler violence” turned out to be false upon investigation.

3. The Mechanism of the Campaign and Its Funding

The campaign is coordinated by the Palestinian Authority, foreign anarchists (such as the ISM), and Israeli left-wing NGOs (including “B’Tselem,” “Yesh Din,” and “Breaking the Silence”). Their tactics involve deliberately instigating provocations and conflicts with the military and settlers, selectively filming the incidents, and subsequently filing complaints with the UN and foreign media. This activity is sustained by millions in foreign state funding. For instance, the European Union allocated millions of shekels to organizations like “B’Tselem” and “Breaking the Silence” for specific projects focused on gathering allegations of “settler violence.”

4. Consequences for the State of Israel

This manufactured narrative has led to severe real-world consequences on both the international and domestic fronts:

International Sanctions: Relying on this false data, the Joe Biden administration in the U.S. issued Executive Order 14115, imposing unprecedented economic sanctions against Israeli citizens, activists, and organizations. The UK, France, Canada, and Japan joined the sanctions, freezing the bank accounts of individuals who have not even been charged with criminal offenses.
Security Threat in Wartime: Due to fears surrounding “settler violence,” the U.S. delayed shipments of small arms, which were vitally necessary for Israeli civilian security squads (emergency response teams) following the outbreak of the war.
Legal Warfare: The narrative is actively utilized by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for investigations against Israel and for issuing advisory opinions on the illegality of the settlements.
Domestic Pressure: Inside Israel, the campaign exerted heavy pressure on the defense establishment, leading to the widespread use of administrative detentions (imprisonment without trial) against Jewish youths; Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signed 23 such warrants.

5. Recommendations from the Report

In its conclusion, Regavim proposes a series of measures to counter this phenomenon:

Create a unified and transparent database linking the IDF, police, and Shin Bet to display real statistics.
Launch a proactive Israeli campaign to refute these lies on an international level.
Deport foreign anarchists who manufacture these situations and restrict the operations of biased agencies like OCHA.
Pass legislation strictly limiting foreign government funding for organizations engaged in activities aimed at delegitimizing Israel.

Just think about how this scheme works: Using European Union money, left-wing organizations submitted false reports about non-existent incidents, which were subsequently thrown out entirely by the courts. However, these very same fabricated cases were immediately logged into their own statistics and passed on to the UN structure (OCHA), which accepted them completely without verification. (Incidentally, OCHA absorbs and broadcasts data on casualties in Gaza from the Hamas Ministry of Health in the exact same manner—but more on that next time). In the next phase, major human rights organizations blew up international scandals in their reports regarding “settler violence,” completely cutting out Arab terror and using mythical figures. And in the grand finale, the American Democratic administration, blindly relying on this coordinated chain of lies, imposed sanctions against innocent citizens.