A broad coalition of former high-ranking Israeli officials, including former prime ministers and defence chiefs, have issued what they termed a “wake-up call” and “final warning”, demanding that the Israeli government act against Jewish settler “terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.
In a joint statement reported by Haartez on Thursday, the ex-officials, who include former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, warn Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that they will appeal to the Supreme Court if immediate action is not taken to change policies on the matter.
The letter states that the government and its ministers “have done nothing to eliminate Jewish terrorism” and that some of its officials have even provided support to illegal settlement outposts where the attackers reside.
“He [Netanyahu] and all government ministers have done nothing and are doing nothing to eradicate Jewish terror in [the West Bank],” the statement says.
“They do not condemn it, do not require the Israel Defence Forces, the police, the Shin Bet and the Civil Administration to fight it, and some of them, at least, even support this terror by providing financial and equipment assistance, and building illegal farms and outposts that serve as residences for Jewish terror activists.”
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The signatories include former army chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, former Mossad director Tamir Pardo, and former Shin Bet chiefs Carmi Gillon and Yaakov Peri, joined by a former national security adviser, a former supreme court justice, former major generals of the Israeli army, a former state prosecutor, rabbis, senior academics and six Israel Prize laureates.
Copies of the letter, prepared by Israeli lawyer Shmuel Berkowitz, were also sent to Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, senior officials from the military, and several other officials.
Government complicity
The group accuses Netanyahu of downplaying the seriousness of the situation by describing the attackers as mere “teenagers”, thus masking a systematic movement that often involves hundreds of adults.
In an interview last December, the Israeli premier claimed those involved in such attacks were “about 70 kids, not from the West Bank, teens who come from broken homes. They do things like chop down trees, and sometimes they try to burn a home. I can’t accept that, and I’m putting a special effort to stop this”.
The letter specifically criticises Netanyahu’s use of the term “hilltop youth” for the attackers, calling it a “misleading description”.
“For some reason, these Jewish criminals are referred to by you with the naive term of ‘hilltop youth’, as if they were members of a youth movement, marginalised youth or [outliers]. These are also young people and adults who lead even minors on the path of terror, crime and deadly violence.”
The letter adds that illegal settlement outposts established near Palestinian villages for the purpose of “Judaisation” are the ultimate driving force behind the violence, noting that the attacks involve armed settlers from those communities.
“In the large raids by these criminals, they are joined by adults from other settlements, from regional defence units, from [local] security squads and from other communities within Israel.”
“These criminals mostly live in [West Bank] farms and illegal outposts, most of which were established without the approval of the qualified authorities,” the statement says.
“They were established near Palestinian communities, primarily to harm their residents and expel them from their villages with the goal of advancing their ‘land redemption’ vision, through forced Judaisation of [the West Bank].”
‘Ashamed’
The letter sets out, in factual terms, the nature of the assaults in the occupied West Bank, where armed settlers have killed Palestinian villagers and shepherds and destroyed or looted their property.
According to a Haaretz report earlier this year, a number of former Israeli officials and generals toured Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank after they were attacked by armed settler gangs.
Several signatories of the letter who participated in such tours expressed shock at the scenes on the ground and what they heard from Palestinian victims, with some openly stating they were “ashamed”.
Attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have intensified sharply since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023. They often unfold in the presence of military forces, who do not intervene to prevent the attacks.
International organisations such as Amnesty International and the UN continue to draw attention to systematic ethnic cleansing campaigns against Palestinians in the area, resulting in the forced expulsion of entire communities.
