An Israeli writer, Oren Ziv, revealed in an article published by the Hebrew magazine 972+ that the wave of condemnations issued by ministers, military leaders, and right-wing analysts regarding what is known as "settler violence" is nothing more than a smokescreen aimed at concealing the bitter truth: this violence represents an official policy adopted by the state.
Ziv, who works as a journalist, commentator, and photographer, explained that the term "settler violence" is a euphemism for organized attacks launched against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, aimed at displacing them from their lands.
Details of the Incident
The intensity of these attacks and killings has increased since the onset of the war with Iran, bringing them to the forefront of headlines and triggering an unprecedented wave of verbal denunciations, including from ministers of the far-right and the Chief of Staff of the army. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, as usual, limited himself to closed security assessments, avoiding public statements.
Ziv asserts that these condemnations do not reflect a genuine change in attitudes but rather a recurring pattern that emerges when assaults exceed certain limits that provoke international embarrassment or harm Israel's reputation abroad. In these moments, a media discourse emerges calling for the "eradication" of the problem, while Palestinian victims are absent from these denunciations.
Context and Background
What distinguishes the current wave of condemnations is the level of external pressures, especially from the American side, where U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged the Israeli government to take action against this violence. This pressure has made it difficult for Netanyahu to continue promoting the idea that these assaults are merely individual actions by youths from broken homes.
Despite the Israeli establishment's acknowledgment of the existence of "Jewish terrorism," this acknowledgment is not followed by any real punitive measures against the perpetrators. The reason for this is that settler violence is considered a tool of the state, with 305 incidents recorded since the beginning of the war on February 28, resulting in 7 martyrs, 215 injuries, and the displacement of entire communities, many of these attacks being led by settlers wearing official military uniforms.
Consequences and Impact
Reports indicate that these condemnations ignore the fact that these attacks enjoy support or implicit approval from security forces, as settlers and soldiers operate in close coordination. Settlers often serve themselves in regional defense battalions within the areas they attack.
Even in the rare cases where disciplinary actions are taken, such as what happened after the assault on a CNN crew last week, it amounts to an attempt to contain media damage rather than genuine accountability, which would be entirely absent if the victims were solely Palestinian.
Impact on the Arab Region
The fact that "settler violence" is also a state policy is evident in the army's declaration of closed military zones in areas experiencing intense violence, not to protect Palestinians, but to prevent solidarity activists from accessing and providing protection, leaving villages vulnerable to forced displacement.
Ziv emphasizes that the police's priority in the West Bank is to protect the settlement project and its expansion, a task that takes precedence over law enforcement or maintaining public order. This systematic process aims to confine Palestinians to narrow urban centers and seize their lands, a policy that will continue to expand as long as international and local reactions remain confined to verbal condemnations that do not change the on-ground reality, but rather provide the necessary cover to continue the silent ethnic cleansing project under a smokescreen of political smoke.