The head of Shin Bet emphasized that the violence should be seen as a coordinated campaign intended to subjugate a minority, with attackers now openly employing lethal weapons.
Israel’s internal security service chief has raised urgent concerns with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the increasing violence by extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank. Labeling this violence as “Jewish terror,” Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar has placed responsibility squarely on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his associates, according to Israeli TV Channel 12.
In a candid letter delivered on Thursday, Bar highlighted the alarming rise in settler attacks, such as the recent assault on the Palestinian village of Jit, as evidence that the situation is deteriorating rapidly, pushing Israel to the brink of disaster.
Bar’s message, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, was unequivocal: Ben-Gvir and other coalition members are not merely complicit but are actively inciting this violence. He pointed to Ben-Gvir’s provocative visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound—referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews—which defied government policy and encouraged widespread violations of the status quo, as a prime example of this reckless behavior.
Bar rejected the term “nationalistic crimes” for the current settler violence, insisting it should be termed “Jewish terror.” He described this as more than isolated acts of violence but a deliberate campaign to assert dominance over a minority, with attackers now openly using lethal weapons.
According to the letter, extremists, once operating covertly, are now emboldened by the expectation that their coalition allies will protect them from meaningful consequences and even provide financial support. Bar warned that this unchecked violence is fragmenting Israel’s social fabric and risking international support, including from its closest allies.
He also cautioned that the Israeli military is neither prepared nor equipped to handle the growing scale of this violence.
In response, Ben-Gvir demanded Bar’s dismissal during an Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday night, accusing him of security failures on October 7 and condemning his letter.
1,270 Attacks on Palestinians in West Bank
Ben-Gvir, a follower of extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, entered the Israeli parliament three years ago through a deal brokered by Netanyahu with religious extremists. Since then, he has transitioned from a fringe settler leader and far-right provocateur to a key figure in the Israeli government.
Recently, Ben-Gvir has been distributing weapons to Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have faced nearly daily assaults from both Israeli troops and settlers.
Since October of last year, Israeli troops and Zionist settlers have killed nearly 680 Palestinians in the West Bank. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there have been approximately 1,270 attacks by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the past 10 months, resulting in deaths, injuries, and property damage.
