According to a range of Israeli officials, experts, military sources and activists, accusations of Israeli “settler violence” against Arabs in Judea and Samaria are part of what they describe as a long-running, well-funded and coordinated campaign aimed at delegitimizing the State of Israel and its residents in the region. None of the sources denied that Jewish violence exists, but said it is less widespread than portrayed in the media, involves fewer incidents than reported, is broadly condemned and is carried out by a relatively small number of individuals.
An April 2026, Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) position paper titled “The ‘Settler Violence’ Influence Warfare Campaign,” authored by Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez Winner and Col. (res.) Gabi Siboni, goes as far as describing the campaign as a “modern-day blood libel” against the State of Israel.
According to Winner and Siboni, the objective is to delegitimize the Jewish presence in the area, mobilize external pressure, advance a Palestinian state and divert attention from Palestinian terrorism.
They say this is done by furthering a narrative “in which Palestinian perpetrators of large-scale violence are recast as victims, while Jewish settlers - a service-oriented population with high rates of reserve duty, volunteering, and organ donation—are portrayed as a threat.”
The writers argue that the campaign has been effective, pointing to the Biden administration’s imposition of sanctions against individuals and entities in Judea and Samaria, increased international scrutiny of the Israel Defense Forces, and what they describe as a weakening of the legitimacy of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
Winner told JNS that, in reality, “there is no exceptional violence in Judea and Samaria targeting Arabs.” He said that, in his view, international actors are seeking to influence Israel’s fight against terrorism by encouraging Palestinians to escalate tensions against settlers. The goal, he said, was to try to damage the reputation of the more than 500,000 Jewish Israelis living in the area, when in reality only several hundred Israeli youth were responsible for acts of violence.
At the same time, Winner suggested that Israel step in to work with the small number of Israeli youths exhibiting violent or problematic behavior.
“It should be addressed through police enforcement and education, aimed at getting to the roots of the problem and redirecting their energies in a better way,” he added.
IDF reservist Yoni Tokayer was given a firsthand look at how allegations of settler violence are used in anti-Israel narratives. Tokayer, serving with the Sayeret Haruv reconnaissance unit, told JNS he was on patrol near Jerusalem last fall when a report came in that a group of Arabs was approaching three teenage Jewish shepherds who were out with their flocks. Tokayer said he rushed to the scene in his jeep and found that the threat was real. He got out of his vehicle and fired a warning shot into the air, successfully dispersing the mob. He was floored when, seconds later, a car with Palestinian Authority license plates arrived and an Arab instructed three children to get out of the car and lie on the ground, pretending they had been injured in the altercation. An accomplice began filming the “wounded” children, and a short time later, the video was posted to Arab media channels on Telegram with accusations of an attack by settlers, he said.
What he learned from the incident is that people need to take such reports “with a grain of salt,” Tokayer told JNS. “The grey zone is so big when there is friction, so you can’t always believe what you see,” he said.
“The bottom line is there is a lot of fake news,” he said. He added “Everyone is using the situation for their own interests and living through their narratives. If there was really any settler violence, I would be against it, but you can’t believe what you see [watching at home] because you have no idea what really happened.”
The Regavim Movement, an Israeli NGO focused on rule of law and land policy, has been pushing back against claims of alleged settler violence for years.
Naomi Linder Kahn, director of Regavim’s International Division, told JNS that under the direction of the Palestinian Authority, the Arabs shifted tactics when they started losing court cases regarding land ownership in Judea and Samaria, roughly 20 years ago.
“They shifted from legal to moral claims,” she explained.
According to Kahn, the preponderance of reports regarding alleged settler violence emerged in relation to IDF Firing Zone 918 in the southern Hebron Hills. She explained that Palestinians had established an illegal cluster of 19 hamlets in the area known as Masafer Yatta. Once Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the encampments were illegal, she said, she began to see more and more reports of settler violence in the area.
“It is clear to me why they shifted tactics. The idea was to take over this strategic piece of land in Firing Range 918 which connects the Negev to Judea and Samaria,” she said. Foreign activists began arriving in the area with cameras and camping alongside local Arabs in the outposts in order to provoke confrontations, elicit responses and distribute edited footage supporting their claims, she continued. “It’s a win-win for the P.A. You have Arab kids living in an IDF training zone, pushing the army into a corner so they don’t hurt civilians, with activists saying to the world they have to be allowed to stay there because they are surrounded by hostile Jewish communities.”
Kahn argued that the residents are being used as pawns by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory while using allegations of settler violence to damage Israel’s image.
Her organization has been calling for Israel to exercise control of the territory for a long time, she said, adding, “When there is a vacuum of governance, bad things will fill it.”
Regavim has studied 6,000 reports of alleged settler violence published by OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tasked with protecting people in humanitarian crises. According to Kahn, Regavim found that roughly 98% of OCHA’s reported incidents either did not involve violence, did not involve settlers, or did not take place in Judea and Samaria. According to her, events classified as settler violence by OCHA include non-violent incidents such as Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, schoolchildren visiting ancient archaeological sites such as Shiloh and Herodium, car accidents involving Jews and Arabs and even an Arab laborer being bitten by a Jewish-owned dog.
She added that OCHA’s online dashboard claims its data always comes from two independent sources, but argued that many reports rely on P.A. sources and organizations such as Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem, which she described as extremist and opposed to Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria. “Sometimes reports of violence are simply made up,” she added.
At a March 2024 Knesset subcommittee meeting, Judea and Samaria District Police Commander Avishay Mualem said that 90 of 191 complaints—about 47%—about settler violence in the South Hebron Hills since Oct. 7, 2023, had been found to be false.
“Sadly,” said Kahn, “some media outlets, including even the Israeli press, publish as fact false information spread by WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority and other propaganda sources.”
Adi Stoler, head of the IDF’s International Department, told JNS the issue of settler violence presents a significant challenge for soldiers. She noted that it is not easy for an 18-year-old commander to confront another Israeli teenager—often younger—and enforce order, but emphasized that it is the soldier’s duty to do what is necessary. The role of soldiers is to arrive on scene and quell violence, while the Israeli police are responsible for investigating incidents, she said. In her view, there is no comparison between rampant Palestinian terrorism and the handful of attacks by Israelis against Arabs. However, she added that violence by Israelis ultimately endangers more Israeli lives.
Israel, she noted, was currently fighting a war on seven fronts, with Judea and Samaria representing the IDF’s largest division in terms of personnel. “Just imagine kerosene being poured on this area, setting it on fire,” she said. “We don’t want another intifada.”
When asked about anti-Israel activists who claim that soldiers collaborate with Israeli extremists, she rejected the accusation. “Those individuals do not accept Israel’s right to exist and claim we are here illegally. It doesn’t matter who is a settler or who is a soldier—they do not believe we have a right to be here,” she said. Stoler emphasized that IDF reservists stationed within Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria over the years have “literally saved thousands of Israeli lives.”
Yisrael Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, told JNS the issue of settler violence has become an international public relations battle, in which billions of dollars are funneled into the region by countries he described as hostile to Israel. Nevertheless, Ganz argued that police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) statistics from the past 12 months show approximately 6,000 terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinian Arabs targeting Jews, compared to about 90 incidents of serious violence by Jews. He added that Jewish shepherds in Judea and Samaria are attacked on a daily basis.
“It’s true our shepherds are out in the field with their flocks. We learned from October 7 that hiding behind fences doesn’t work. But that doesn’t give Arabs the right to attack us,” he said.
He also noted that despite the focus on settler violence, the Binyamin region under his leadership has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. The Binyamin Regional Council in a press release this week noted that recent nationwide data from the Israel Police show the area is among the safest in Israel. The council said “the data present an evidence-based picture of a high level of personal security in the area and raise questions about attempts to portray the region as characterized by widespread violence.” According to the data, the crime rate in the Binyamin Regional Council stands at approximately 10 cases per 1,000 residents—less than half the national average of about 25.
“While public discourse sometimes presents a different picture of what is happening in the area, the official data present a clear reality - a high level of personal security and strong community life. We are proud of the result, but committed to continuing to strengthen it,” he said.
Hebron Hills Regional Council head Eliram Azulay described the claims of settler violence as part of a “well-oiled propaganda machine,” partially funded by foreign actors, whose purpose, he said, is to damage the reputation of what he called a pioneering and law-abiding public. He added that efforts to portray a distorted picture of reality in the Hebron Hills are not only an attack on the residents of Judea and Samaria, but also on Israel’s security and the legitimacy of its cause.
“The headlines are biased and false,” he said. “The settlement enterprise is the protective shield of the State of Israel,” Azulay said.
In December 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told Fox News that the instances of settler violence were “much bloated.”
“It’s about 70 kids. They’re not from the West Bank,” he said, describing them as troubled teenagers from broken homes. “They do things like chopping olive trees, and sometimes they try to burn a home. I can’t accept that. That’s vigilantism. I’m taking that out.” Netanyahu asserted that there was a “false symmetry between these teenagers and over a thousand terrorist attempts” against the Jewish families of Judea and Samaria.
Even as the prime minister characterized the issue as involving a small number of non-settler juvenile delinquents, the Israeli government has in recent months taken steps to address Jewish-initiated violence. In March of this year, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a directive to address nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria through strengthened enforcement, legal measures, and inter-agency coordination. It instructed the National Security Council and IDF Central Command to develop and expand operational tools to deter and respond to such incidents, while improving coordination between security and enforcement bodies to avoid friction in the field.
It also included strict measures against unauthorized Israeli outposts in Area B, under P.A. municipal control and Israeli security control, including the prevention of new construction and the removal of illegal structures.
The directive called for targeted economic sanctions against offenders, such as asset freezes and loss of benefits, and urged the judicial system to expedite prosecution and impose meaningful penalties.
In addition, this week the Israeli Defense Ministry spokesperson announced that the government had approved a new three-year, 120-million-shekel national program, proposed by Defense Minister Israel Katz, aimed at reducing risk factors among youth in Judea and Samaria, strengthening personal and community resilience, and addressing negative social phenomena.
The program, developed by the Directorate for Improving Responses for At-Risk Youth in coordination with multiple government ministries and local stakeholders, includes initiatives to encourage military enlistment, support school dropouts, expand welfare and community services, and increase vocational training, as well as programs in culture, sports, and employment.
The initiative, titled “Otzmat HaLev,” was developed by Col. (res.) Avihai Tanami, who was appointed by Katz in 2025 to oversee issues related to hilltop youth—a loosely organized group of teens and young adults associated with small outposts and farms throughout Judea and Samaria.
The others involved include an inter-ministerial team in cooperation with local authorities, educators, and community rabbis.
Tanami described the program as a comprehensive, field-informed effort combining educational, employment, therapeutic, and awareness-based tools, aimed at addressing youth challenges through a long-term, systemic approach rather than quick fixes.
“This is not a magic solution, he said, “But I believe that with proper educational work, full trust in the youth, and patience for the process, the program can succeed.”
The Defense Ministry told JNS they were not elaborating with further details about the program at this time.
