Jewish extremists and terrorists have effectively become “the sovereign” in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli army protects their illegal activities and serves the political interests of the far-right government, a veteran Israeli military analyst has warned.
Writing for Israel’s Ynet news site, Ron Ben-Yishai said that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), police and Shin Bet internal security agency are no longer capable of enforcing the law against violent settlers.
“The IDF has lost control of the extremists among the settlers and has become a security company for their whims and illegal actions,” Ben-Yishai concluded. He described the situation in which the army protects “Jewish extremists and terrorists” as intolerable.
The extraordinary assessment followed an investigation into a deadly confrontation in the Palestinian village of Tell, near Nablus, last month.
Initial Israeli reports described the incident as a Palestinian “terror attack”. However, Ben-Yishai rejected that account, saying the violence began after dozens of armed Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian village.
