Yesh Din
Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights is an Israeli non-governmental organization founded in 2005 to advance the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.[1][2]
The group focuses on monitoring and documenting alleged violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, tracking the Israeli police and military's law enforcement outcomes, providing legal aid to Palestinian victims, and issuing reports that critique perceived deficiencies in accountability mechanisms.[3][4][5]
Since its inception, Yesh Din has analyzed over 1,700 police investigation files related to such incidents from 2005 to 2024, reporting that the majority were closed without indictments due to investigative shortcomings rather than lack of evidence.[5]
It has also advocated against policies it views as entrenching occupation, including a 2020 report applying the legal concept of apartheid to Israeli control in the West Bank.[6][4]
Critics, including monitoring groups, contend that Yesh Din exhibits selective advocacy by emphasizing Israeli civilian and state actions while downplaying Palestinian-initiated violence, relies heavily on unverified Palestinian complaints, and engages in international campaigns that portray Israel through politicized lenses such as apartheid rhetoric, potentially undermining objective human rights work.[4][7]
History and Founding
Establishment in 2005
Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights was founded in March 2005 by Israeli volunteers, including members of Machsom Watch, a women's group monitoring military checkpoints in the West Bank to document treatment of Palestinians.[4][7] The Hebrew name "Yesh Din," meaning "There is Law," underscored its core objective of promoting accountability and rule of law in response to alleged human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied territories.[7][1] From inception, the organization positioned itself as a volunteer-driven entity aimed at opposing what its founders described as ongoing infringements on Palestinian rights, including inadequate Israeli enforcement against settler actions such as violence and property destruction.[4] Early operations emphasized fieldwork to gather evidence on incidents, legal assistance for Palestinian complainants, and pressure on authorities to investigate cases, reflecting a focus on bridging perceived gaps in judicial oversight amid the security and settlement dynamics of the West Bank.[1][7] This approach drew from the checkpoint observation model of Machsom Watch but expanded to broader advocacy against occupation-related policies.[4]Evolution of Focus Amid Ongoing Conflict
Following its establishment in 2005, Yesh Din initially concentrated on monitoring and advocating for improved Israeli law enforcement responses to settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, documenting cases where police investigations rarely led to indictments—such as just 7% of 1,531 completed probes from 2005 to 2022.[8] This emphasis stemmed from the organization's origins in addressing immediate harms to Palestinian individuals and property amid persistent settlement-related tensions post-Second Intifada.[1] As settlement expansion accelerated in the late 2010s, particularly after 2017 when state-led land appropriation efforts intensified, Yesh Din broadened its scope to challenge policies enabling illegal construction on Palestinian private land and unequal allocation of public lands favoring settlements.[2] The group filed High Court petitions, such as one in December 2024 urging equitable land distribution, highlighting how military practices systematically disadvantaged Palestinian development.[9] This shift reflected growing integration of land rights into its advocacy, viewing occupation policies as drivers of displacement amid ongoing territorial disputes. By the early 2020s, amid heightened military operations and governance changes like the 2023 transfer of Civil Administration powers to pro-settlement figures, Yesh Din extended scrutiny to Israeli security forces' accountability, publishing data on soldier offenses—revealing low complaint filings and closures in periods like 2018-2022.[10] In June 2020, after 15 years of fieldwork, it issued a report characterizing the West Bank regime as apartheid, based on patterns of domination and rights denial observed in legal aid cases.[6] The October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and ensuing West Bank escalations prompted further adaptation, with Yesh Din documenting a surge in settler raids—242 incidents involving hundreds of participants in the initial months—and new restrictions on Palestinian movement, such as area closures since late 2023.[11][12] Reports in 2024 analyzed a "silent overhaul" in Israeli control mechanisms, including expanded settlement funding and reduced oversight, underscoring the organization's pivot toward systemic critiques of conflict-perpetuating governance amid violence spikes.[13]Mission and Objectives
Stated Goals for Palestinian Rights
Yesh Din articulates its core mission as safeguarding the human rights of Palestinians residing under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, which the organization identifies as the principal driver of systematic violations. Founded in 2005 as a volunteer-based initiative, the group emphasizes providing legal assistance to individual Palestinians affected by such infringements, including those stemming from settler actions, security force conduct, and restrictions on land use. This support extends to pursuing accountability through Israeli courts and public advocacy, with the explicit aim of compelling Israeli authorities to uphold obligations under international humanitarian law to shield Palestinian civilians and their property.[1] The organization's stated objectives include documenting and publicizing patterns of abuse in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as ideological violence by Israeli settlers, failures in law enforcement investigations, and policies enabling settlement expansion that encroach on Palestinian access to farmland and water resources. Yesh Din posits that these activities not only remedy immediate harms but also foster broader systemic reforms, including enhanced enforcement against perpetrators and restitution for victims. For instance, the group tracks metrics like investigation closure rates—reporting that between 2005 and 2024, only a fraction of documented settler violence cases against Palestinians resulted in indictments— to highlight institutional shortcomings and advocate for policy corrections.[1][5] Ultimately, Yesh Din's advocacy framework seeks the termination of the occupation itself as a prerequisite for curtailing human rights abuses, framing it as a structural impediment to Palestinian security and self-determination. This encompasses challenges to governmental decisions, such as renewed land titling in Area C that purportedly prioritizes Israeli claims over Palestinian ownership, which the organization contends breaches international norms and exacerbates displacement risks. Through position papers and legal filings, Yesh Din urges international oversight to enforce protections, positioning its efforts as a counter to what it describes as de facto annexation tactics undermining Palestinian territorial integrity.[1][14][15]Underlying Ideological Framework
Yesh Din's ideological framework is rooted in a commitment to universal human rights principles and the application of international humanitarian law to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly emphasizing accountability for alleged violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. The organization posits that the rule of law must apply equally, advocating for investigations into settler violence and property damage as ideologically motivated offenses, a categorization not standard in Israeli or global jurisprudence. This approach frames Israeli policies in the occupied territories as systematic failures of enforcement, prioritizing Palestinian victims' rights over broader security considerations.[3][16] Central to this framework is an evolving interpretation of the occupation as a permanent structure of domination rather than a temporary arrangement, culminating in Yesh Din's 2020 legal opinion declaring Israel's control over the West Bank as constituting the crime of apartheid under international law. Legal advisor Michael Sfard, instrumental in this shift, described rejecting "Israeli myths" of transience after extended analysis and comparative study with South African apartheid, arguing that the regime entails intentional, indefinite subjugation of Palestinians through dual legal systems and land policies. This perspective aligns with advocacy for ending settlement expansion, viewed as de facto annexation breaching Palestinians' rights and risking formalized inequality.[17][18][14] Critics, including NGO Monitor, characterize this framework as ideologically driven, accusing Yesh Din of selective human rights application that amplifies Palestinian narratives while minimizing Israeli security imperatives, such as threats from violence in contested areas. Methodological critiques highlight the use of bespoke definitions—like "ideologically motivated" crimes—to inflate failure rates in investigations (e.g., claiming 91% closure without indictment from 2014-2019 data), rendering global comparisons invalid and aligning with broader "lawfare" efforts to delegitimize Israeli sovereignty claims. Such analyses suggest an underlying post-occupation bias, common in left-leaning Israeli NGOs, that privileges international legal interpretations favoring Palestinian self-determination over pragmatic conflict realities.[4][16][4]Organizational Structure
Leadership and Key Personnel
Ziv Stahl has served as executive director of Yesh Din since April 2022, succeeding Lior Amihai whose tenure ended on March 31, 2022 after nearly five years.[19] Stahl, an attorney with prior experience in the organization's field investigations and legal departments, oversees operations focused on monitoring settler violence and challenging Israeli administrative policies in the West Bank.[20] Lior Amihai, who led Yesh Din from approximately 2017 to 2022, previously directed international relations and advocacy efforts, including responses to international designations of partner organizations.[4] Prior to Amihai, Haim Erlich held the executive director position, contributing to policy advocacy during his 2010–2015 tenure while also coordinating development initiatives.[21] Yesh Din was founded in March 2005 by a group of Israeli women affiliated with Machsom Watch, a checkpoint monitoring organization, including co-founder Ruti Keidar, who helped establish early fieldwork in West Bank villages to document Palestinian rights violations.[4][22] Key legal personnel have included attorneys like Michael Sfard, who has represented the organization in High Court petitions against settlement-related demolitions and law enforcement gaps.[18] The organization's professional staff comprises lawyers, field researchers, and policy experts, often with backgrounds in human rights advocacy, though specific current roles beyond executive leadership are not publicly detailed on the official website.[23] Directors of specialized units, such as international relations (e.g., Danya Cohen), support global outreach and funding coordination, primarily from European governmental donors.[24]Volunteer Network and Operational Model
Yesh Din's operational model centers on a volunteer-driven structure supplemented by professional expertise, emphasizing grassroots documentation and legal advocacy to address alleged human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Established in 2005, the organization combines individual case support—such as assisting Palestinian complainants with police filings—with broader systemic efforts to monitor Israeli law enforcement and challenge policies through reports and petitions.[1] This dual approach relies on volunteers for on-the-ground data collection, including gathering testimonies from Palestinians reporting injuries or property damage by settlers, while professional staff, including lawyers and human rights specialists, handle litigation and analysis.[1] The volunteer network forms the core of Yesh Din's operations, with corps members actively involved in monitoring investigation files, tracking law enforcement outcomes, and contributing to organizational administration—a model described as unique among Israeli human rights groups for its emphasis on volunteer-led daily functioning. Volunteers elect the steering committee, a body of five members responsible for organizational decision-making and representing the broader volunteer base, ensuring accountability to this network rather than external hierarchies.[25] This elected governance structure underscores the organization's reliance on volunteer input for strategic direction, with examples including contributions to reports on settler violence and military procedures from 2013 to 2023.[26] Professional staff integrate with volunteers by providing legal support, such as filing petitions and analyzing enforcement data, while volunteers handle fieldwork like incident verification in the West Bank.[1] This hybrid model enables Yesh Din to process hundreds of cases annually, as seen in monitoring projects assessing police investigations into settler offenses, though outcomes often highlight low indictment rates based on their data. The approach prioritizes empirical tracking over direct intervention, with volunteers and staff collaborating on publications that critique systemic impunity, funded through donations but operated under Israeli law.[1]Core Activities
Legal Advocacy Against Israeli Policies
Yesh Din primarily conducts legal advocacy against Israeli policies through strategic petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), targeting military orders, land administration practices, and administrative decisions in the West Bank that the organization contends discriminate against Palestinians or facilitate settlement expansion. These efforts aim to enforce what Yesh Din describes as equal application of law and adherence to international humanitarian law, often arguing that policies violate Palestinian property rights and amount to de facto annexation. For instance, on November 29, 2024, Yesh Din filed a petition demanding the Israeli military allocate public land on an equal basis between Israelis and Palestinians, highlighting severe discriminatory practices in land distribution under military oversight.[9] Similarly, on September 26, 2024, in collaboration with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, it petitioned to repeal a transfer of powers from the Civil Administration head to a deputy, asserting the move effectively advances West Bank annexation by shifting control toward Israeli civilian authorities.[27] In challenges to settlement-related policies, Yesh Din has sought to halt procedures enabling land registration favoring Israeli settlers. On September 14, 2025, it petitioned the HCJ to annul a cabinet decision resuming "settlement of title" processes across the West Bank, contending the measure defies international law by aiming to annex occupied territory through retroactive legalization of settler claims on private Palestinian land.[28] Earlier, on March 7, 2024, Yesh Din supported a petition to block the Jordan Valley Regional Council's actions restricting Palestinian access to land, part of broader efforts to curb settlement councils' overreach.[29] The organization has achieved some judicial successes, such as an August 2024 HCJ ruling preventing settlement regional councils from confiscating Palestinian livestock as a punitive measure, which Yesh Din hailed as protecting property rights amid escalating tensions.[30] Yesh Din's petitions extend to military practices, including historical challenges like HCJ 2690/09, where it argued against incarcerating West Bank detainees inside Israel proper, citing violations of jurisdictional norms and detainee rights.[31] However, not all efforts succeed; a 2018 joint petition with other NGOs to alter IDF open-fire regulations near the Gaza border was rejected by the HCJ, which found the proposed changes could heighten risks to Israeli forces without sufficient evidentiary basis for the claimed proportionality issues. Critics, including monitoring groups, argue Yesh Din's legal strategy selectively targets Israeli actions while overlooking Palestinian violence, potentially undermining claims of impartiality in occupation oversight, though the organization maintains its focus aligns with accountability for state-held duties under occupation law.[4]Monitoring Settler Violence and Property Damage
Yesh Din conducts field-based documentation and monitors law enforcement responses to incidents of violence and property damage by Israeli civilians, primarily settlers, against Palestinians and their assets in the West Bank. The organization's approach involves collecting victim testimonies, verifying events on-site, and tracking police investigations from filing through resolution, including cases where Palestinians decline to submit formal complaints due to perceived inefficacy or risk.[5] This monitoring extends to offenses categorized as ideological crimes, such as arson, crop destruction, vehicle vandalism, livestock theft, and infrastructure sabotage, which Yesh Din links to efforts to intimidate or displace Palestinian communities.[32][5] From 2005 to 2024, Yesh Din tracked 1,701 investigation files into such incidents, with 93.8% closing without indictment and only 3% resulting in convictions.[5] Property damage forms a core subset, often intertwined with physical assaults or land encroachments; for instance, Yesh Din reports recurrent targeting of olive groves and agricultural fields, which constitute economic harm in addition to physical destruction.[32] Between January 2023 and September 2024, the group documented 328 incidents of harm, including property attacks, where 60.6% of victims forwent complaints—rising to 66% in 2024 alone—reflecting documented patterns of non-cooperation stemming from prior investigative failures.[5] Beyond formal probes, Yesh Din independently records hundreds of unfiled incidents via direct outreach and fieldwork, arguing that reliance on complaint-based data understates the scope due to enforcement barriers like jurisdictional complexities in the West Bank.[5] These efforts produce annual data sheets quantifying outcomes, such as low indictment rates for property offenses, which Yesh Din attributes to systemic leniency toward perpetrators.[33] The monitoring underscores patterns of impunity, with Yesh Din contending that inadequate protection violates Israel's obligations as the administering authority.[5]Documentation of Law Enforcement Failures
Yesh Din systematically tracks investigations into alleged ideologically motivated offenses by Israeli civilians against Palestinians in the West Bank, focusing on settler violence such as assaults, property damage, and arson. The organization assists Palestinian complainants in filing reports with the Israel Police or the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID) and monitors the progress of these cases through data sheets published annually. According to Yesh Din's analysis of cases it has handled from 2005 to 2024, approximately 94% of investigations concluded without an indictment, while only 3% resulted in a conviction following a full or partial guilty plea or trial verdict.[5] These figures, derived from 1,660 concluded files with known outcomes, highlight a pattern of high closure rates for investigations due to insufficient evidence or unidentified suspects, which Yesh Din attributes to inadequate initial policing and evidentiary collection at crime scenes.[34] In cases where Yesh Din directly represented complainants, only 6% of police investigations into settler violence from 2005 to 2023 ended in charges being filed, with even fewer advancing to convictions.[35] The organization documents specific failures, including delays in responding to incidents—often exceeding hours despite proximity of security forces—and reluctance to enter areas near settlements to pursue suspects. For instance, in its 2023 data sheet covering 2005–2022, Yesh Din reported that just 3.2% of monitored cases led to convictions, arguing that this impunity encourages repeat offenses by signaling a lack of accountability.[33] Trends show a decline in filed complaints, from 100 in 2022 to fewer in subsequent years, which Yesh Din links to Palestinian distrust in the enforcement system's efficacy rather than a reduction in incidents.[5] Yesh Din extends its scrutiny to military personnel, documenting low prosecution rates for soldiers suspected of harming Palestinians or their property. In a 2025 report on 2018–2022 incidents, the group found that of 139 investigations into such allegations, only 11% resulted in indictments, with convictions rare and penalties often lenient, such as suspended sentences or fines.[10] These documentation efforts, based primarily on cases Yesh Din accompanies, underscore the organization's claim of systemic deficiencies in dual legal enforcement frameworks for civilians and military actors in the West Bank, though critics contend the data may overrepresent unresolved cases due to selection bias in NGO-assisted filings.[36]Challenges to Settlement Expansion
Yesh Din has mounted legal challenges against Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank through petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ), targeting government decisions that facilitate land regularization and outpost development. On September 14, 2025, the organization petitioned the HCJ to annul a cabinet decision resuming "settlement of title" procedures, which Yesh Din contends unlawfully advance de facto annexation by declaring private Palestinian lands as state property for settlement purposes.[37] A similar petition filed on September 21, 2025, sought to revoke the renewal of these proceedings, asserting they contravene Israeli administrative law and international humanitarian law by prioritizing settlement growth over Palestinian property rights.[3] The group documents settlement outposts—unauthorized extensions of existing settlements—as key mechanisms for territorial expansion, often involving coordinated land takeovers under the guise of agriculture or herding. In its May 2022 report "Plundered Pastures," Yesh Din analyzed 36 shepherding outposts established since 2017, claiming they infringe on Palestinian grazing lands and are tacitly supported by Israeli military escorts and infrastructure, leading to restricted access for over 1,000 Palestinian herders across 200,000 dunams.[38] The report urged international bodies to pressure Israel to dismantle these outposts, framing them as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on population transfers into occupied territory.[38] Earlier efforts include the 2015 report "Under the Radar," which exposed an alleged Israeli policy of retroactively legalizing illegal outposts through administrative maneuvers, citing 15 cases where outposts received infrastructure approvals despite lacking initial permits, thereby expanding settlement footprints by thousands of dunams.[39] Yesh Din's Annexation Legislation Database, launched in 2023, tracks over 20 Knesset bills since 2015 aimed at altering the West Bank's legal status to enable settlement growth, arguing these undermine the occupation's temporary nature under international law.[40] These activities position Yesh Din as a persistent litigant, though outcomes remain limited, with Israeli courts often upholding security-based rationales for settlement policies.[4]Key Reports and Legal Actions
Publications on Occupation and Apartheid Claims
In July 2020, Yesh Din published a legal opinion titled The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid, asserting that Israeli policies in the West Bank constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid as defined under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[17] The 57-page document, prepared by Yesh Din's legal team including attorney Michael Sfard, frames the occupation as a regime of systematic domination and oppression by Israelis over Palestinians, involving acts such as denial of fundamental rights, resource allocation disparities, physical separation through barriers and checkpoints, and differential legal frameworks—military law for Palestinians versus civilian law for Israeli settlers.[17][6] It argues that these practices demonstrate intent to maintain Israeli supremacy, evidenced by settlement expansion, gradual annexation efforts, and state-backed colonization, potentially extending the apartheid characterization to Israel's overall regime.[17] The opinion applies the apartheid definition—inhuman acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of racial domination intended to perpetuate it—while adapting "racial group" to encompass national or ethnic distinctions between Israelis and Palestinians.[6] Key evidence cited includes over 140 settlements housing approximately 430,000 Israeli civilians by 2020, which Yesh Din claims facilitate land expropriation affecting Palestinian agriculture and residency rights; restrictions on Palestinian movement via over 500 checkpoints and barriers; and unequal access to water resources, with Palestinians allocated about 73 liters per capita daily compared to 300 liters for Israelis.[17] The report urges individuals, including Israeli officials and international actors, to recognize and halt these practices, positioning the analysis as a call for accountability rather than a formal indictment.[17] Yesh Din has referenced apartheid claims in subsequent publications, such as the April 2020 position paper on West Bank annexation's human rights impacts, which warns that formal annexation would entrench apartheid-like dual systems, and joint "State of the Occupation" reports in 2023 and 2024, which describe accelerated settlement activity and violence as manifestations of an apartheid regime amid displacement risks.[41][42] These works build on the 2020 opinion by integrating data on over 1,000 documented settler violence incidents since 2005, low prosecution rates (under 4% convictions), and policy shifts like outpost legalization, framing the occupation's longevity—over 57 years by 2024—as evidence of permanent domination intent.[5][43] Critics, including monitoring organizations, contend such characterizations overlook security contexts like terrorism threats and Palestinian rejectionism, viewing Yesh Din's selective legal interpretations as advocacy-driven rather than neutral analysis.[4]Data-Driven Reports on Recent Violence (2023-2025)
Yesh Din has published periodic data sheets analyzing law enforcement outcomes for incidents of violence by Israeli civilians against Palestinians in the West Bank, drawing on monitored police investigation files since 2005. These reports emphasize empirical tracking of complaint filing, investigation initiation, closure rates, and indictments, highlighting patterns of non-prosecution. For the period 2023-2025, the organization's documentation reflects a surge in reported incidents following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, with Yesh Din attributing increased settler violence to reduced deterrence amid heightened regional tensions.[36][44] In its December 2023 data sheet covering 2005-2023, Yesh Din reported 160 documented cases of settler violence against Palestinians or their property from January to September 2023 alone, of which 92 led to police investigations. Overall, from 2005 to September 2023, the group monitored 1,299 investigation files, with only 3.1% resulting in indictments and 86.2% closed due to investigative failures, such as insufficient evidence from inadequate scene processing or witness handling. The report noted 2023 as the most violent year on record, with 242 incidents documented in the first two months after October 7, including assaults, property damage, and arson.[36][32][44] The January 2025 data sheet extended coverage through September 2024, documenting 328 incidents of harm to Palestinians from January 2023 onward, during which 60.6% of victims opted against filing police complaints, citing distrust in the process. Across 1,701 monitored files from 2005 to September 2024, indictment rates remained at approximately 3%, with 86% of closures attributed to police inaction. Yesh Din's analysis for 2024 highlighted persistent impunity, with over 93% of investigations ending without charges, linking this to systemic barriers in military-administered jurisdictions.[5][45]| Metric | 2005-2023 (Dec 2023 Report) | 2005-2024 (Jan 2025 Report) |
|---|---|---|
| Total Monitored Files | 1,299 | 1,701 |
| Indictment Rate | 3.1% | ~3% |
| Closure Rate Due to Police Failure | 86.2% | 86% |
| 2023-Specific Incidents (Jan-Sep) | 160 documented | Included in 328 (Jan 2023-Sep 2024) |