Opinion | The Fire in the West Bank Is Burning Hotter, Out of Sight
“The Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the hanging of Palestinians convicted of killings during militant attacks, exempting Jewish perpetrators. This legislation, along with increased settler violence and government actions to expand settlements, aims to end the possibility of a Palestinian state. While some Israelis protest these actions, the government’s response remains crucial in de-escalating the situation.
OpinionGuest Essay
The Fire in the West Bank Is Burning Hotter, Out of Sight
By Talia Sasson
Ms. Sasson is a former senior official in Israel’s State Attorney’s Office and former president of the New Israel Fund. She wrote from Tel Aviv.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, last week passed a law allowing the hanging of Palestinians convicted of killings during militant attacks, using language that effectively exempts Jewish perpetrators of nationalistic violence. This legislation is both unconstitutional and discriminatory. Beyond its fundamental immorality, the law is part of a larger, accelerating effort to systematically end once and for all the possibility of a Palestinian state. That effort includes the uncontrolled surge in violence by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and a strategic restructuring of the West Bank’s administration intended to make it easier for settlers and the state to seize Palestinian land.
An alliance of settlers and far-right politicians is the primary engine behind this radical transformation. While polls show that most Israelis support it, the legislation was pushed through by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure the survival of his governing coalition by indulging the vengeance narrative that serves as the cornerstone of the political goals of the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key partner in the coalition.
Its passage comes on the heels of a sharp escalation in near-daily acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past year. Settlers have raided Palestinian villages, setting fire to homes and vehicles, harming livestock and uprooting trees. In February and March alone, settlers reportedly killed eight Palestinians.
Settlers continue to establish illegal outposts within Area A — territory that under the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s is designated for full Palestinian civil and security control. According to data from the United Nations, 36,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the West Bank last year, 3,500 of them forced out directly by settler violence. This trend intensified in the first three months of 2026, with 1,697 Palestinians already displaced.
Historically, Israeli soldiers have been reluctant to enforce the law when Jewish settlers commit crimes, often viewing such actions as an unwanted entanglement in political disputes over the fate of the West Bank. This reluctance has evolved into radicalization among troops since Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government took office in late 2022 — and that radicalization has sharply accelerated since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In several documented instances, soldiers have even reportedly participated in crimes against Palestinians. Conversely, in some cases where soldiers have attempted to curb settlers’ illegal behavior, they have found themselves the targets of settler attacks.
Last month, a CNN crew arrived in the village of Tayasir in the northern Jordan Valley to report on an attack by settlers and the establishment of an illegal outpost. While documenting the scene, the journalists were assaulted and detained by Israeli soldiers for two hours at gunpoint. During the detention, soldiers were captured on camera echoing settler ideology, defending the outposts and speaking of acting out of revenge. The military labeled the matter a “grave ethical incident” and took the highly unusual step of suspending the operations of the entire battalion, mainly composed of former members of the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda unit. The battalion’s commanders were reprimanded, and one soldier was ejected from the military.
Such isolated disciplinary measures fail to address a systemic, untreated malaise within the military’s ranks and the systemic discrimination against Palestinians that is embedded in law enforcement. The Israel Police rarely conducts thorough investigations into settler violence, and such cases almost never result in indictments. While the Shin Bet, the domestic security service, can issue administrative restraining orders against extremists and carry out administrative detentions of them, Defense Minister Israel Katz has moved to stop the use of such measures against Jewish settlers, although the vast majority of detainees were Palestinian. This policy only serves to embolden Jewish extremist activity in the territories.
While building a governing coalition, Mr. Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed that Mr. Smotrich would take an additional role, within the Defense Ministry, to effectively administer the West Bank. Mr. Smotrich has called for one state under Israeli control from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Since taking office, he has focused on expanding settlements, notably through the establishment of dozens of Israeli “agricultural farms” across the West Bank. These illegal outposts are intended to eventually become legal settlements under Israeli law. (The United Nation’s top court has deemed all settlements to be illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.)
In February, the government approved measures meant to significantly ease land acquisition for Jewish residents in the West Bank and to open the formal land registration process for the first time since 1967, making it easier to expand settlements and more difficult for Palestinians to claim ancestral property. Moreover, planning and administrative power over land use, historically held by Palestinian municipalities under the Oslo Accords, and including the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, were transferred to Israeli authorities.
Compounding this crisis are the conflict in Gaza, which has fueled deep-seated animosity toward Palestinians in Israel, and the new war with Iran, which has pushed the heightened volatility and violence in the West Bank to the periphery of public discourse. Under the cover of regional escalation, the fire in the territories burns quietly, out of sight.
And yet, amid all this, a new chorus of voices is emerging within the Israeli public — both Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel — that rejects the atrocities occurring in the West Bank. Through petitions and the media, these citizens are calling on the government and security forces to act immediately to halt these acts of terror. They demand that law enforcement take a decisive stand against shameful deeds being carried out in their name, and have condemned the new death penalty law as racist, unconstitutional and immoral.
As the number of Israelis protesting these actions grows, so too does the likelihood that the government will move to halt the atrocities. Ultimately, no factor remains more consequential to Israel’s trajectory than the Trump administration, which could still use its leverage over Mr. Netanyahu to push him to de-escalate the situation in the West Bank. I believe that once the Israeli government resolves to do so, it possesses the power to bring an end to most of this violence.
Talia Sasson is a former senior official in Israel’s State Attorney’s Office and a former president of the New Israel Fund. She wrote a landmark government report on illegal West Bank outposts under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government.“
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