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EFRAT, Israel – Reports of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians have prompted Britain to announce an import ban on goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. However, residents say Western governments and the media are ignoring a major part of the story.
CBN News traveled to Efrat in Judea near Jerusalem to meet Rabbi Leo Dee, a father who lost his wife and two daughters to Palestinian terrorists, to examine why he says coverage is missing.
For Rabbi Dee, the conflict in Judea and Samaria isn't abstract politics. In April, 2023, Palestinian terrorists murdered his wife, Lucy, and daughters, Maia and Rina, in a horrific highway ambush.
More than three years later, reports of settler violence against Palestinians are again making international headlines, while Dee claims attacks against Israelis go unreported. Dee believes that the U.K.'s move to ban goods from Israelis in Judea and Samaria can be blamed on lopsided coverage.
In announcing the ban on September 8th, U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband declared, "The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas perpetrated by settler terrorists...I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories."
The controversial phrase "ethnic cleansing" was repeated a staggering 12 times during that parliamentary session.
While Rabbi Dee condemns all violence, he stresses that Western narratives ignore the overwhelming reality on the ground.
He told us, “The Western media is reporting on so-called settler violence, which refers to a number of Palestinians who were killed by settlers. Now, many of those were defending themselves against attacks from Palestinians. But according to Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, about three of them were actual murders by settlers or Palestinians, which, of course, is horrendous, is unacceptable. And those people are brought to justice in this country, under the legal system as everybody else.”
Dee points out that Western coverage routinely distorts the real proportion of victimhood.
He explained, "(In) the last 20 years, about 2000 Israelis have been killed by West Bank Palestinians, ... and maximum, maybe 20 Palestinians have been killed, many in self-defense, by settlers. So it's less than 1%....it's completely disproportionate.”
Dee contends that Western voters often fall for this biased narrative and these skewed statistics, giving politicians a clear incentive to pander to domestic electorates, including growing Muslim communities.
"Western foreign policy is determined more by the electorate in these countries. And as you know, there's an increasing Muslim minority in Europe and Britain. And the parties in power are very keen to get that vote," he said.
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Dee also challenges the idea that a two-state solution benefits Palestinians because of a corrupt economic system run by the Palestinian Authority.
“The idea that we should have a two-state solution when we've had a two-state solution, basically, for 30 years since Oslo – it's been the greatest disaster. But by all accounts, for Jews, but also for Palestinians. Palestinians live in a place today where the average salary in Ramallah is about 2,500 shekels a month. That's about $800 a month."
He continued, "But the terrorists within the Palestinian Authority, of which there are 70,000, paid for by the Palestinian Authority and the pay-for-slay scheme, they get paid 12,000 shekels a month, which is about $4,000 a month.”
We asked him, "If you are a part of the pay-for-slay campaign program – government-sponsored program – you're getting paid four times the amount of an average laborer in Ramallah?”
Dee replied, “That's right. So your average Palestinian, who I don't believe actually is an evil person, I think that generally good people like you and me, but they're lamenting the fact that their kids, given a choice to either become a doctor in Ramallah and get paid $800 a month, or become a fighter, a terrorist for the Palestinian Authority and get paid $4,000 a month.”
This institutional corruption has led local Arab leaders in Hebron to seek an alternative path, bypassing the Palestinian Authority entirely, to build direct economic ties with Israel.
When asked about his practical vision for peaceful coexistence in Judea and Samaria, he answered, "So, recently, I had the honor of meeting a group of sheikhs from – who had run for a bread run – and they represent a million ordinary Palestinians who live in Judea and Samaria, in the city of Hebron.”
Dee observed, “Before October the 7th (2023), most of these people were able to go into work in Israel. After October 7th, because of the security situation, Israel cut off the opportunities, really, for most of the Palestinians.”
“They said, 'Look, you know, we don't want to be under the Palestinian Authority, right? They're corrupt. They're full of terror. They're incentivizing our kids to become terrorists.' And they said to me, 'What can you do for us to help us to establish an independent Hebron state inside Judea, Samaria?'"
Dee confirmed to us that even the Palestinians he has talked with consider the blockage to be coming from the Palestinian Authority.
He asserted, "The world community is still talking about a two-state solution. That means continuing backing the Palestinian Authority, which pays terrorists and incites terrorism and encourages children, Arab children, to become terrorists.”
When asked what steps can be taken to move the situation forward, Rabbi Dee answered, "I think that, you know, leaders, like (Prime Minister) Andy Burnham in England, Ed Miliband, the foreign minister, (French President) Macron, the other leaders of European nations, should be meeting with these real Palestinians and saying, 'What would you like?'"
We asked him what gives him hope amid tragedy and political hostility. He credits the global Christian community.
"When I meet evangelical Zionists," he stated, "it makes me, you know, lifts me up so much to meet them...They can see what is right and they can see what is wrong. And they're still calling out the evil regimes. And, and thank God. It gives me hope for humanity."
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