Former Israeli security chiefs implicate Netanyahu government in enabling and funding settler terrorism
Former Israeli security chiefs implicate Netanyahu government in enabling and funding settler terrorism, demand Hilltop Youth be outlawed
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The Cradle @TheCradleMedia
Former senior Israeli military, intelligence, police, and legal officials demanded on 24 October that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, War Minister Israel Katz, and Shin Bet chief David Zini designate the extremist settler movement Hilltop Youth and its associates as a terrorist organization, Ynet reported.
In a formal letter, the signatories documented the movement’s systematic terrorization of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank through shootings, physical and sexual assaults, arson, property theft, destruction of olive trees, attacks on mosques, and forced displacement.
The letter directly implicates Israel’s political leadership, citing political backing from senior ministers, Netanyahu and Katz’s deliberate inaction or even encouragement of attacks, and direct and indirect government funding.
It argues that these actions are intended to expel Palestinians from their homes, seize their land and water resources, and expand Jewish settlements.
The signatories also report that Israeli soldiers sometimes participate in settler attacks, while security forces routinely fail to intervene and instead obstruct Israeli activists attempting to protect Palestinians.
The signatories, including former war minister Moshe Ya’alon, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, condemn the failure of Israel’s military, police, and Shin Bet to fulfill their legal responsibilities.
They also criticize Katz’s restrictions on administrative detention and restraining orders against Jewish suspects, and demand an immediate end to state funding, confiscation of state-provided assets used by those assisting the movement, and enforcement of anti-terrorism laws.
An accompanying statistical appendix documents a sharp rise in settler violence, recording 1,835 incidents in 2025 and 2,060 through 15 October 2026, compared with 852 in 2022.
The signatories warn that failure to outlaw the movement would make Netanyahu and other officials directly responsible for continued attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property.
This points to a pattern of violence that is far from a fringe phenomenon: settler attacks are enabled by state funding, political backing, and the protection or participation of occupation forces, even as Israel publicly portrays such violence as the work of isolated extremists rather than a means of forcibly displacing Palestinians and expanding illegal settlements.