Israel’s settler violence crisis goes far beyond Netanyahu

Qusra exposes a system where Palestinians fear leaving their homes

The violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has become increasingly difficult for Israel to dismiss as the work of a handful of extremists.

In the Palestinian village of Qusra, residents have reportedly spent days trapped inside their homes because of threats from Israeli settlers. Despite Israel's considerable military and intelligence capabilities, the army has struggled — or been unwilling — to fully remove the settlers from the area.

The episode raises a much bigger question: why has Israel done so little to stop settler violence?

The answer appears to extend well beyond Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

More than 500,000 settlers live in the West Bank

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians claim the territories for a future independent state.

Since then, Israel has established almost 150 settlements housing more than 500,000 Jewish Israelis. Many are now effectively towns or suburbs, complete with apartment blocks, shopping centres, parks and industrial areas.

Alongside the authorised settlements are hundreds of smaller outposts established without formal government approval.

Critics argue that these outposts have nevertheless benefited from military protection and other state services.

Netanyahu's current government, one of the most nationalist and religious administrations in Israeli history, has openly supported settlement expansion and has celebrated the restoration of settlements dismantled during Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

Palestinians and settlers face different legal systems

Around 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under Israeli military rule, although the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in some population centres.

Israeli forces operate throughout the territory and Palestinians suspected of security offences can be held without charge for extended periods under administrative detention.

Israeli settlers, however, are Israeli citizens and generally fall under Israeli civilian law and police jurisdiction.

That division has become one of the most controversial features of life in the West Bank.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that the military's primary responsibility is combating Palestinian terrorism and protecting Israel's borders and settlements, rather than pursuing violent settlers.

He has also announced plans to transfer responsibility for settler law enforcement more fully to the Israeli police.

Critics fear that this will simply reinforce an already deeply unequal system.

The extraordinary failure to prosecute

Perhaps the most damning statistic comes from the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din.

It says approximately 94% of investigations into settler violence since 2005 ended without an indictment, while only around 3% resulted in full or partial convictions.

That statistic helps explain why critics accuse Israeli authorities of failing to provide an effective deterrent.

The Israeli military says settler violence is illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable. In Qusra, it says troops dismantled two illegal outposts and detained an Israeli suspect.

But rights organisations accuse the military of frequently turning a blind eye to violence — and, when it does intervene, sometimes concentrating on protecting settlers rather than Palestinian victims.

Netanyahu is not the whole story

It is tempting to blame the situation entirely on Netanyahu and his coalition partners.

But that misses something important.

Netanyahu's political opponents have also criticised settler violence while supporting the continued expansion of at least some Israeli settlements.

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, one of Netanyahu's leading political rivals, attacked the government's handling of Qusra and accused it of allowing "anarchy and violent lawbreaking".

Yet Eisenkot has also said he has never advocated a Palestinian state and supports settlements considered to be in Israel's interests.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett has gone even further in condemning extremist settlers, describing their violence as terrorism.

But Bennett is himself a longstanding supporter of the settlement movement. During his time as prime minister, his government approved thousands of additional settler homes.

The contradiction is striking: Israeli politicians can condemn settler violence while simultaneously supporting the wider settlement project from which the extremists emerge.

American pressure has failed to change the picture

The United States and other Western governments have attempted to put pressure on violent settlers.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on settlers and organisations accused of violence following the dramatic escalation in attacks after Hamas's October 7, 2023 assault on Israel.

Britain and other Western nations also sanctioned hard-line Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over accusations of encouraging extremist violence against Palestinians.

But the sanctions had limited impact.

The settler movement largely rallied behind those targeted.

President Donald Trump subsequently revoked the US sanctions after returning to office and appointed Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Israeli settlements, as ambassador to Israel.

That represented a major shift from the approach taken during the Biden administration.

A political system with little incentive to change

There is another uncomfortable reality for Netanyahu's critics.

His coalition depends heavily on politicians representing Israel's nationalist and religious right, including powerful settler supporters.

With elections approaching, Netanyahu has every reason to avoid alienating that constituency.

But the same political calculation extends beyond Netanyahu.

Large sections of Israel's political establishment support settlement expansion, even when they condemn violence committed by individual settlers.

That means the problem cannot simply be solved by removing one prime minister.

The deeper issue is the relationship between Israel's political system, the settlement movement, the security forces and the millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control in the West Bank.

Qusra is a warning sign

The events in Qusra therefore matter far beyond one Palestinian village.

Israel possesses one of the region's most powerful militaries and sophisticated intelligence services. Yet when armed or violent settlers threaten Palestinian communities, the state's response has repeatedly been criticised as inadequate.

The question is no longer simply why Netanyahu has failed to rein in extremists.

It is whether Israel's political and legal system has created too little incentive to stop them.

Until that changes, condemning individual acts of settler violence while continuing to expand settlements risks looking less like a solution and more like an attempt to manage a problem that successive Israeli governments have chosen not to confront.

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