Israel must crack down far more seriously on Jewish settler violence against Palestinians

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – These last few months have seen a noticeable rise in violent attacks perpetrated by Jewish Israeli citizens against Palestinian civilians in the region of Judea and Samaria, the area the world calls the “West Bank,” a phenomenon often lumped under the umbrella term, “settler violence.”

ALL ISRAEL NEWS unequivocally condemns such violence against Palestinians whenever and wherever it occurs.

We recognize what Israel’s critics and enemies do not: that the vast majority of Israelis who live in these Biblical yet disputed territories are law-abiding citizens.

Those who are committing these acts of violence and vandalism are a small percentage of the “settler” movement – but they are doing terrible damage to Israel’s already battered image worldwide.

ALL ISRAEL NEWS calls on Israeli authorities to dramatically improve criminal investigations, arrests, and prosecutions of violent criminals and take serious measures to prevent future cases.

What’s more, Israeli authorities must prosecute these violent and criminal settlers to the fullest extent of the law.

This is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. It is also the wise thing to do. Our reputation in international public opinion has already taken a beating since the October 7th war. Any Israeli government that refuses to crack down on violence against Palestinian Arabs is only making our situation significantly worse.

Unfortunately, the situation is far too complex to leave it at this.

Much has been written in the global media about “settler violence,” a label applied to various kinds of incidents and actions.

Yet these actions are being exploited as a weapon against Israel.

Some are making the provably false claim that Israel is committing a “genocide” against Palestinians.

The most recent example: an American Democratic presidential hopeful, Rep. Rohit “Ro” Khanna (CA), soft-launched his campaign by drawing international outrage with claims that he was “detained” by Israeli settlers with the help of the Israeli military.

This is after he was temporarily prevented from entering a closed military zone without any violence, during a trip that he reportedly refused to coordinate with the Israeli government or the U.S. embassy.

Khanna then used the wave of publicity over the issue to make terrible and untrue accusations against Israel – and not for the first time.

In 2025, Khanna wrote on 𝕏, “I agree with the UN commission’s heartbreaking finding that there is a genocide in Gaza. What matters is what we do about it – stop military sales that are being used to kill civilians and recognize a Palestinian state.”

As we have explained many times, the military situation in Gaza has been painful, messy, and deadly. But it is not genocide. The IDF has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect Palestinian civilians. If Israel truly wanted to commit genocide by killing all two million Gazans, it could have done so in a matter of hours, if not minutes.

This is why we must note that the broad term “settler violence” has been applied far too liberally.

The term is being weaponized against a population of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are living peacefully in their ancestral homeland, over 90% of them in towns that will stay part of Israel even under any realistic two-state plan.

Israeli NGOs have long protested the fact that statistics from the United Nations or human rights groups purporting to list hundreds, even thousands, of incidents of “settler violence” are often filled with the mildest of incidents, such as road accidents, Jews ascending the Temple Mount, or Jewish school classes visiting archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria.

Far more serious incidents of real, unjustified violence are being carried out by Israeli civilians, most often without any official involvement, and would be classified as “regular” criminal activity in any other context.

For example, there are frequent brawls in which young Jewish and Palestinian shepherds fight over grazing rights, literally with sticks and stones.

Some of these incidents receive media coverage out of all proportion to their impact.

And, we must stress, there are many, many more violent attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria, which is the main reason law enforcement focuses on Palestinian terrorism, rather than Jewish criminals.

Yet, real, serious and grave examples of injustice do occur.

They are most often perpetrated by a small but ugly movement of Jewish Israeli hypernationalists, sometimes with active help from IDF soldiers, who are often reservists serving in or near their home communities.

Another aspect of this injustice is the lack of effective law enforcement, whether in preventing these incidents, responding quickly when they are reported, or pursuing follow-up prosecutions, which are often shambolic or even non-existent.

The real failure in this situation is the unfortunately typical Israeli lack of an organized response.

Yes, Israeli officials have consistently condemned this violence, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

So have IDF officers responsible for security in the area, who are regularly referred to as “Nazis” by extremist settlers.

But over the past few decades, successive Israeli governments have let law enforcement in Judea and Samaria slip, to the point that the area has been described by many as a lawless “Wild West.”

Palestinian terror groups, large clans and violent youth factions are clashing with Jewish youth and extremist groups in the fields of the Biblical homeland every day.

The battle over grazing areas and farmland has become a frontline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and this is the failure of the government, which has neglected to ensure law and order while pursuing clear and public policies in these areas.

To be clear: We at ALL ISRAEL NEWS believe in Israel’s right to the Biblical heartland, but we also believe it is the responsibility of the Jewish state to provide law and order, even when it means prosecuting Jewish Israelis for hurting people who may be our enemies.

The current situation should not be tolerated for one moment longer.

It is harming the state’s standing in the world even further – but most importantly, it is unjust and needs to be repaired now.