According to Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research , 63 % of Palestinians opposed PA plans to prosecute Palestinians who work in the settlements . However , 72 % of Palestinians support a boycott of the products they sell . Although the Palestinian Authority has criminalized working in the settlements , the director-general at the Palestinian Ministry of Labor , Samer Salameh , described the situation in February 2014 as being " caught between two fires " . He said " We strongly discourage work in the settlements , since the entire enterprise is illegal and illegitimate ... but given the high unemployment rate and the lack of alternatives , we do not enforce the law that criminalizes work in the settlements . " Gush Emunim Underground was a militant organization that operated in 1979 – 1984 . The organization planned attacks on Palestinian officials and the Dome of the Rock . In 1994 , Baruch Goldstein of Hebron , a member of Kach carried out the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre , killing 29 Muslim worshipers and injuring 125 . The attack was widely condemned by the Israeli government and Jewish community . The Palestinian leadership has accused Israel of " encouraging and enabling " settler violence in a bid to provoke Palestinian riots and violence in retaliation . Violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians constitutes terrorism according to the U.S. Department of State , and former IDF Head of Central Command Avi Mizrahi stated that such violence constitutes " terror . " In mid-2008 , a UN report recorded 222 acts of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and IDF troops compared with 291 in 2007 . This trend reportedly increased in 2009 . Maj-Gen Shamni said that the number had risen from a few dozen individuals to hundreds , and called it " a very grave phenomenon . " In 2008 – 2009 , the defense establishment adopted a harder line against the extremists . This group responded with a tactic dubbed " price tagging , " vandalizing Palestinian property whenever police or soldiers were sent in to dismantle outposts . From January through to September 2013 , 276 attacks by settlers against Palestinians were recorded
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
Israeli settlement