Settler Violence Benefits Israel’s Detractors

Every criminal act committed by an Israeli deserves unequivocal condemnation, arrest, and prosecution. Judaism does not permit vigilantism, and Israel, as a democratic state governed by the rule of law, cannot tolerate Jews who assault innocent Palestinians or destroy their property. Beyond violating Israeli law, such acts constitute a profound chilul Hashem—a desecration of God’s name—and betray the moral standards the Jewish state is meant to uphold.

To gain a broader perspective on conditions in Judea and Samaria, I reached out to several respected individuals whose views span the religious and political spectrum.

A trusted friend—an Iranian-born Jew, American citizen, and observant immigrant to Israel—offered a candid assessment. “The kids behind the violence live in rough neighborhoods,” he told me. “That doesn’t excuse anything. They have no right to take the law into their own hands. It pains me to say that the law is not applied evenly. These ruffians, along with segments of the Ultra-Orthodox community, are too often treated with undue leniency. At the same time, the foreign press exaggerates the scope of the problem. The hooligans in Shomron and Yehuda are criminals, but they are not the KKK.”

Senior Rabbi David Englander of Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, New Jersey, argued, “There is a difference between Israelis defending themselves against terror attacks and groups of messianic settler youths rampaging through villages to destroy, scare, and intimidate. It seems this is rampant enough that even the current government acknowledges it, even as it is unwilling to do what is necessary to rein it in. From here, however, it is hard to get a perspective on how widespread it really is and how much the broader Israeli society is focused on it, if they are.”

Rabbi Andy Green of Congregation Or Tzion in Scottsdale observed that settler violence “is a real problem, encouraged by Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and the current coalition who empowers those most extreme elements of the country. Of course, anti-Zionist haters overblow it to denigrate Israel. And because of what those haters say, Israel’s defenders often come to minimize it because of how and who exploits and exaggerates it to serve their own narrative.”

Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, was equally direct. “It’s appalling,” he told me. “I don’t trust that it is as widespread as sometimes reported, but it is clear the government is not cracking down as they should and need to.”

An Israeli high-tech professional offered another perspective that deserves careful consideration:

“Downplaying incidents by settlers against Arabs doesn’t do justice to either side. There are no reliable statistics because this government has little interest in documenting them. I personally know volunteers who go to the West Bank to serve as a buffer between settlers and Palestinian farmers during harvest season, and one young woman who had her arm broken by settler youth. By all means prosecute violence perpetrated by Arabs—but apply exactly the same standard when the offenders are Jews.”

That principle reflects the consensus I found in Chabad commentary as well. A Jewish government must enforce one standard of justice for everyone. Security is the responsibility of the state—not self-appointed vigilantes. When private citizens substitute their own judgment for the law, they weaken the very state they claim to defend.

Leading rabbis in Judea and Samaria have repeatedly said the same. Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Samaria region and other prominent religious leaders have publicly condemned violence against Palestinians, warning that harming either people or property is immoral and undermines the legitimacy of the entire settlement enterprise.

Fortunately, the perpetrators themselves represent only a minute fraction of the more than 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria. The overwhelming majority reside in established communities such as Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’in Illit, and Gush Etzion. They are teachers, physicians, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, professors, and families raising children—not young men roaming the hills looking for confrontation.

Those responsible for these crimes are typically a small group of disaffected youth—school dropouts, societal misfits, and ideological extremists searching for identity and purpose. They establish unauthorized hilltop outposts with little more than a tent, a generator, a few sheep, and an Israeli flag. Living outside established communities, they often come into direct friction with nearby Palestinian villages. What follows can be a cycle of rock-throwing, vandalism, arson, assaults, and, at times, deadly violence.

None of this excuses Palestinian terrorism. But neither can Palestinian terrorism excuse criminal acts committed by Jews. Moral consistency demands that both be condemned without qualification.

Regrettably, successive Israeli governments, together with the Border Police, the Shin Bet, and other security agencies, have not acted decisively enough to eradicate this problem. Political considerations have too often taken precedence over the rule of law. Some elected officials are reluctant to confront these extremists because they fear alienating a segment of their political base. That hesitation comes at a tremendous cost—not only to Israel’s international standing, but to Israel’s own moral integrity.

The tragedy is compounded because Israel’s enemies eagerly exploit every such incident. International media outlets frequently magnify the crimes of this tiny fringe while giving comparatively less attention to decades of Palestinian terrorism, systematic incitement, and financial rewards paid to terrorists who murder Israelis. The result is a distorted narrative in which isolated crimes by Jewish extremists become representative of an entire community, while sustained campaigns of anti-Jewish violence are too often rationalized as products of “occupation” or “desperation.”

That distortion should never become an excuse for minimizing Jewish wrongdoing. If anything, it should make Israel even more determined to enforce the law. Every assault by a Jewish extremist hands Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and Israel’s other detractors a propaganda victory they neither deserve nor should receive.

Israel’s security challenges are real. Families throughout Judea and Samaria have endured decades of shootings, stabbings, roadside ambushes, and, since October 7, the fear that another massacre could emerge from the hills overlooking their homes. Yet those dangers make the rule of law more essential—not less. A Jewish state cannot preserve its legitimacy by tolerating lawlessness from any quarter.

Violence is violence. It does not become acceptable because the perpetrator is Jewish, just as it does not become understandable because the perpetrator is Palestinian. A single standard of justice is both a Jewish imperative and a democratic necessity. Only by confronting criminality honestly—without exaggeration, but also without excuses—can Israel defend both its security and its moral credibility.