These settlers operate with impunity because the Israeli government flat out refuses to punish them, implicitly encouraging their behaviour. There just isn't any pressure for the justice system to punish violence, terrorism, home invasions, etc, against Palestinians. Ex-Shin Bet chief: Israel does not intend to stop ‘price tag’ attacks Israel is not managing to stop “price tag” nationalist crimes against Arabs, because it does not have the desire to do so, former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Carmi Gillon said on Saturday. “We don’t see results because we don’t have the intention to,” Gillon said, adding that in the Shin Bet “there’s no such thing as can’t – there’s don’t want to.” Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit also spoke at the event, saying in regard to “price tag” attacks that “Israel doesn’t enforce its laws.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settler_violence#Law_enforcement_action_against_settlers The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict reported on rioting and violence in the West Bank in the period preceding the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The report said "Little if any action is taken by the Israeli authorities to investigate, prosecute and punish violence against Palestinians, including killings, by settlers and members of the security forces, resulting in a situation of impunity. The Mission concludes that Israel has failed to fulfil its obligations to protect the Palestinians from violence by private individuals under both international human rights law and international humanitarian law.[31] US: Israel has not tried most ‘price tag’ culprits “Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents, property, and places of worship in the West Bank continued and were largely unprosecuted according to UN and NGO sources,” the report read. B'Tselem topic: Settler violence: Lack of accountability As the occupying force, Israel must protect the Palestinians in the West Bank. However, the Israeli authorities neglect to fulfill this responsibility and do not do enough to prevent Israeli civilians from attacking Palestinians, their property and their lands. The undeclared policy of the Israeli authorities in response to these attacks is lenient and conciliatory. Perpetrators are rarely tried, and many cases are not investigated at all or are closed with no operative conclusions. In general violence against Palestinians is not taken seriously, rarely investigated, and when it is investigated the scene of the crime is often never visited, witnesses never questioned, etc. Yesh Din: Alleged Investigation http://yesh-din.org/userfiles/file/Reports-English/Alleged%20Investigation%20%5BEnglish%5D.pdf The chances of a criminal offense carried out by an IDF soldier against a Palestinian successfully navigating the obstacle course of the complaint procedure, an MPCID criminal investigation and the MAGC’s decision- making process and finally resulting in an indictment are almost nil. There is no way to know the scope of criminal offenses committed against Palestinians by IDF soldiers – how many times in the past few years soldiers looted property in homes they entered in order to conduct searches, shot civilians in contravention of the rules of engagement and with no operational justification, and beat and humiliated passersby at check points and on roadsides. It is safe to assume that in many of these incidents, the victims waived their right to make a complaint and to demand that the IDF investigate the offenders and bring them to justice. The figures available to us show the minute number of cases in which complaints of alleged offenses actually resulted in criminal investigations and the indictment of those responsible: only three and one half percent (3.5%). It would appear, therefore, that a Palestinian who approaches a human rights organization or makes his way to the police officer at the DCO will need special luck to receive a measure of relief from the military law enforcement system. Human Rights Watch: Israel/Gaza: Israeli Military Investigation Not Credible Human Rights Watch: Israel: IDF Probe No Substitute for Real Investigation Amnesty: Trigger-Happy: Israel’s Use Of Excessive Force In The West Bank Israeli soldiers have repeatedly committed serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, including unlawful killings, in response to Palestinian opposition and protests in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The cases documented in this report represent only a minority of the cases that have occurred over recent years and which follow a general pattern, in which Israeli forces use excessive, often lethal, force against Palestinians who pose no threat to their lives or the lives of others. Soldiers are permitted to do so effectively with impunity – inasmuch as the official system established to investigate alleged human rights violations or other abuses by Israeli soldiers is neither independent nor impartial. Israel: 92% of Jewish Hate Crimes Against West Bank Palestinians Never Brought to Justice Since September 2000, the Israeli Military Courts Have Convicted Just Six Soldiers for Offenses Involving the Death of Palestinians Soldier convicted of negligent homicide of ‘Udai Darawish, a Palestinian entering Israel through gap in Separation Barrier Ziv Stahl, director of Yesh Din’s Research Department, commented on the findings: "In practice, the updated statistics show that the likelihood that a soldier who unjustifiably killed a Palestinian civilian will be investigated, let alone penalized, is slight to non-existent. This reality encourages the unlawful use of weapons by soldiers, even in clearly civilian situations such as demonstrations.” According to B’Tselem figures, some 5,000 Palestinians have been killed to date by the Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000. Figures forwarded to Yesh Din by the IDF Spokesperson show that the MPCID opened over 179 criminal investigations in the period 2003-2013 concerning the suspected killing of Palestinian civilians by IDF soldiers, but only 16 of these files led to indictments. Just 16 of the investigation files into incidents in which Palestinians were killed led to indictments. In these indictments, a total of 21 soldiers were charged with offenses relating to the death of 18 Palestinian civilians and one foreign national. Some of the defendants were charged with offenses relating to the disruption of the investigation rather than to the incident itself. The military courts ultimately convicted seven soldiers of offenses relating to the death of just six civilians – five Palestinians and one British citizen. Two additional soldiers were convicted of offenses relating to the attempt to pervert the course of justice in the framework of these proceedings. Report: Palestinian civilians' deaths go unpunished Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: U.N. A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. "Almost all those using children as human shields and informants have remained unpunished and the soldiers convicted for having forced at gunpoint a nine-year-old child to search bags suspected of containing explosives only received a suspended sentence of three months and were demoted," it said.