Several retired Israel Defense Forces generals are publicly denouncing their own government for permitting settlers living in the illegally occupied West Bank to wage a campaign of violence against the Palestinian population.

As The New York Times reported on Monday, the retired generals have been touring the West Bank in recent days to witness first-hand the damage that has been done to Palestinians’ livelihoods by the Israeli settlers, whose violent actions have grown so outrageous that even US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described them as “terrorists.”

Ephraim Sneh, retired brigadier general and former minister of health, did not mince words in describing the settlers’ campaign of attacking Palestinian villages.

“This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply,” said Sneh.

Asaf Agmon, a retired Air Force general, likened the attacks on Palestinians to the kinds of pogroms once suffered by Jews living in Europe.

Agmon also said that the Israeli government’s tacit support of these attacks bodes ill for the future of Israel.

“Once a society behaves this way,” said Agmon, “that society is doomed.”

The tours of the West Bank are being organized by Yaakov Or, a retired Israeli general who spent much of his career working inside the occupied territory.

According to the Times, Or begins every tour with a speech where he emphasizes the importance of speaking out against what he says are indefensible atrocities.

“When I take you to see what is happening in the West Bank, you will have two choices,” Or said during the start of a recent tour. “You can stay silent, and be complicit, or you can speak out, and tell everyone you know about what is happening.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend once again downplayed the significance of settler attacks on Palestinians, describing them as rogue actions taken by troubled individuals.

“We are talking about a very small handful of people,” Netanyahu said, “usually young people who come with all kinds of distress and problems, often from home, and I am determined to stop this.”

The Israeli prime minister also said that attacking Palestinian villages “harms the settlement movement” and “gives us a bad name around the world.”

Netanyahu on “settler” terrorism:

We are talking about a very small handful of people, usually young people who come with all kinds of distress and problems, often from home, and I am determined to stop this.

You want to enter a village? You will not enter. That is not your… pic.twitter.com/MlnKxlaxlB
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 30, 2026

Palestinian Christian theologian Munther Isaac pointed out that the Israeli government itself has been actively working to push Palestinians out of their homes in the West Bank, pointing to recent Israeli demolitions of homes in the town of Birzeit.

“This is what ethnic cleansing looks like in Palestine,” wrote Isaac.

Birzeit: Israeli occupation forces demolished two inhabited residential buildings. Each was four stories high, with every floor covering 250 square meters.

This is what ethnic cleansing looks like in Palestine. pic.twitter.com/XsYu92VUFw
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) August 31, 2026

Human rights organizations for months have been sounding the alarm about the situation in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have routinely attacked Palestinians at their own homes.

An analysis published by the Carter Center last month found that “settler attacks are now the leading cause of Palestinian injuries in the West Bank,” as “more than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced by settler attacks and home demolitions this year—double the daily rate of the previous three years.”

---

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.