IDF chief: Settler violence ‘unacceptable,’ results in ‘extraordinary strategic damage’ |
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Wednesday issued sharp condemnation of settler violence, calling attacks against Palestinian civilians and soldiers in the West Bank “morally and ethically unacceptable” and a major strategic impediment.
During a visit to the Central Command, he noted an uptick in “nationalist crime incidents” some of which “are aimed directly against our soldiers and toward the civilian population.”
The comments came hours after extremist settlers, stymied by authorities in an attempt to rebuild the illegal outpost of Kol Mevaser in the central West Bank, attacked the nearby Palestinian village of Mukhmas.
Security camera footage showed several attackers setting a fire by a fence protecting a chicken coop. Activists later found burnt cloth that was used to try to set the coops ablaze.
“It is unacceptable that during a multi-front war, the IDF is forced to also contend with a threatening minority from within,” Zamir said, labeling the assailants “rioters who do not represent the settlements, according to remarks provided by the IDF.
“On the contrary, they endanger the settlements, security, stability, and our values as a people and as a state,” he continued, calling on authorities to “stand against this phenomenon and uproot it before it is too late.”
“Anyone who thinks these actions help security is mistaken; they are morally and ethically unacceptable, and they create extraordinary strategic damage to the IDF’s efforts,” he added.
Zamir’s remarks also came as the IDF also faces mounting criticism for often standing by while attacks unfold, actively participating or failing to prosecute those responsible.
Some critics claim that the overwhelming impunity enjoyed by attackers demonstrates that the violence is sanctioned, if not encouraged by the government.
After Zamir spoke, his condemnation of settler violence was echoed by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who lamented, “we did not establish a Jewish state so that violent gangs could operate within it.”
“I strongly condemn any manifestation of nationalist violence by Jewish extremists in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
Bennett, too, sought to distinguish between the burgeoning phenomenon from the settlement movement’s mainstream, saying the “vast majority of [settlers] abhor violence and crime” and that it is supporters of the settlement movement, like him, who “must denounce the rioters and eradicate all violence from within ourselves.”
Bennett, a longtime supporter of West Bank settlements and the former director of the Yesha Council, an umbrella body for the settlements, called Wednesday’s attack “another failure of governance” and demanded that the government “let the IDF and police work.”
The West Bank has recently seen a wave of rising extremist settler violence against Palestinians. Six Palestinian civilians have been shot dead by settlers since the beginning of March, while other violent attacks by such radical elements against Palestinians and civil rights activists seeking to protect them have become a daily occurrence in the West Bank.
Former Israeli minister and centrist lawmaker Meirav Cohen also slammed the uptick in violence, bringing up the perpetrators’ nationalist motives and deriding such attacks as “Jewish terrorism.”
“The reality is that right now, villages are being attacked, communities are being deliberately driven from their homes, sheep are being slaughtered, orchards are being burned, people are being attacked simply because they are Arab,” Cohen said on Tuesday.
“This is indeed terrorism — and Jewish terrorism… Over time, this terrorism has enjoyed growing impunity,” she said. “It has become more widespread, more organized, more dangerous. And it is dangerous not only for Palestinians, but also for Israelis, for soldiers, for our country.”
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the military’s top commander in the West Bank sent a letter to settler leaders on Wednesday saying the violence “does not exist in a vacuum” and imploring them to speak out.
“What is required is public leadership that fulfills its role and speaks clearly,” Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth reportedly wrote, while warning that continued violence could spark “a broader escalation along the entire front, harming the IDF’s capabilities and diverting forces and resources from Israel’s chief effort [against Iran].”
AFP contributed to this report.
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