Prosecutors on Thursday filed an indictment against 24-year-old settler Ariel Dahari, accusing him of carrying out a racially-motivated terrorist attack against Palestinian olive harvesters near Turmus Aiya near Ramallah in October, requesting that he remain in custody until the end of legal proceedings.
The case – involving the beating of a Palestinian woman and assaults on several others – stands apart as a serious settler-violence indictment, which comes amid rising domestic and international scrutiny of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
According to the indictment, a group of Palestinian residents of Turmus Aiya and nearby al-Mughayyir arrived at their olive grove around 7:35 a.m. on October 19.
Shortly before 8:45 a.m., a group of 20-25 masked settlers approached the grove “with the intent to confront the harvesters,” allegedly motivated by “racism due to [the victims’] national-ethnic origin.”
The indictment states that several settlers smashed the windshield and slashed the tires of one harvester’s car before Dahari arrived at the scene, carrying a long wooden club with a thick edge.
When Palestinians attempted to flee, the group, including Dahari, chased them, threw stones, opened the driver’s door of one man’s moving vehicle in an attempt to drag him out, and pursued him as he escaped down a hillside on foot.
Dahari then allegedly struck another car belonging to a Palestinian woman, shattering its rear window, with debris flying into the vehicle – an act prosecutors say was committed with a racist motive.
West Bank’s most volatile flashpoints for settler-Palestinian confrontations
The most serious allegation concerns the attack on a Palestinian woman who had come to assist with the olive harvest. According to the charge sheet, Dahari ran toward her, threw a stone, and when she tried to flee, he closed in and struck her in the head with the thick end of the club, causing her to collapse.
He then allegedly hit her twice more while she lay on the ground.
The woman suffered a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, deep lacerations requiring stitches, and extensive bruising, and she was evacuated to the hospital.
Dahari was charged with acts of terror of aggravated intentional injury, including three counts of such acts committed together with others, and intentional, racially motivated damage to a vehicle.
A sharp rise has been noted in settler violence since 2023, including physical assaults, destruction of groves, and harassment of harvesters. Only a small proportion of cases lead to indictments, and terror charges against Jewish suspects are particularly rare. Against this backdrop stands the Dahari indictment.
Dahari, from the unauthorized outpost Oz Yair, has been held in custody since November 9 and is expected to be brought before the Jerusalem District Court for arraignment in the coming days. The prosecution has asked the court to keep him detained until the end of his trial due to the severity of the alleged offences and the risk of further violence.
His legal team is expected to challenge the terror designations and the evidentiary basis of the case.