Israeli general condemns violence by Jewish settlers in West Bank

Amid rising tensions between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and new moves by the Israeli government to extend its grip on the territory, an Israeli general on Monday issued a sharp rebuke of the government’s policies there and condemned rising “nationalist crime” by Jewish settlers.

Major General Yehuda Fuks, the outgoing head of Israel’s Central Command, which is responsible for the country’s military forces in the West Bank, said at a farewell ceremony that a “strong and functioning” Palestinian Authority is in the interests of Israel’s security.

The general’s statement appeared to be a dig at Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who is himself a settler and has paralyzed the authorities by withholding tax money Israel collects on its behalf in the roughly 40 percent of the West Bank that the authorities control.

General Fuks also expressed dismay at the rise in settler violence in the West Bank, home to some 2.7 million Palestinians and a Jewish settler population that has grown to more than 500,000. An extremist minority of violent settlers, he said, was undermining Israel’s reputation internationally and spreading fear among Palestinians. “That is not Judaism to me,” he said. “At least not what I grew up with in my father’s and mother’s house. That is not the way of the Torah.”

Israel seized control of the West Bank from Jordan in 1967 during a war with three Arab states. Since then, Israeli citizens have settled there with both the tacit and explicit approval of the government. They live under Israeli civil law, while their Palestinian neighbors are subject to Israeli military law.

The international community largely considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal, and many are illegal under Israeli law but tolerated by the government. Many outposts that began as illegal under Israeli law have subsequently been legitimized by the government, and Palestinians have long argued that they represent a creeping annexation that is turning the land needed for an independent Palestinian state into an unmanageable patchwork.

Last year, the United Nations reported that attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank had increased sharply in the weeks following the October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, leaving at least 115 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and nearly 1,000 forced from their homes. They cited violence and intimidation by Israeli forces and settlers.

General Fuks argued that instilling fear in Palestinians living alongside Jews was “a dangerous mistake” and that the actions of violent Jewish settlers threatened Israel’s security.

But Mr. Smotrich has been vocal about Israel’s desire to claim the entire West Bank. Last month, he struck a deal with ministers to release some money that had been withheld from the Palestinian Authority in exchange for legalizing five more Jewish outposts, and last week the Treasury Department released about $136 million.

Mr Smotrich said in a social media post that day that he was working with planning authorities to secure more than 5,000 additional residential units in the West Bank. “We are building the good land and thwarting the creation of a Palestinian state,” he said.

Last month, an Israeli ministry approved the largest seizure of land in the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, taking about five square miles of the Jordan Valley, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors settler activity. Israel has seized about nine square miles of the area this year, making 2024 by far the peak year for allocations, Peace Now said.

As settlers and ministers resist, their activities are fueling tensions between Israel and other countries, including its ally the United States, as Israel becomes increasingly isolated in the world over its warfare in Gaza.

“Settlements remain counterproductive to a two-state solution,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in a briefing with reporters Monday. “We do not support that.”

Johnatan Reiss contributed to the reporting.