How Israeli terror begets Palestinian terror

IN BIOLOGY CLASS we were taught that evolution takes generations. A genetic mutation, by contrast, can occur within a single generation. Last week, during a tour of the West Bank, I witnessed such a mutation taking shape. I saw a young Palestinian man—for his and his family’s security, let us call him Ali—who had never concerned himself with politics, never joined any organisation, never demonstrated for national rights, never held a weapon. I saw a man wholly focused on earning a living and providing for his family, now on the verge of becoming a fighter, perhaps even a shahid (martyr).

Even though nothing in his words or conduct betrayed any intention on his part to change course, hearing him speak—quietly, chillingly calm—and seeing the helplessness, I could not but fear for the next chapter of his life.

During the visit I met others too. It is quite possible that some of what I attribute to Ali, I heard from them. However, Ali is merely a parable for what is unfolding a 40-minute drive from home.

He is a young man in his late twenties, tall, athletic-looking, with a direct gaze and neither arrogance nor submissiveness. Someone who’s straightforward, who doesn’t beat around the bush—what we Israelis call tachles. The moment he opened his mouth, it became clear to me that he was also articulate, intelligent and sober-minded.

He was born ten months after his 13-year-old brother was shot and killed by our forces. Ali was named after him. The family lives on a plot of land they have owned for generations and makes—or, more precisely, made—its living from herding sheep.

There is no more precise Hebrew expression for their home and surroundings than kivsat ha-rash—a poor man’s only lamb. It is half ruin, half tent, surrounded by ageing, dilapidated equipment. Electricity and water arrive—or rather, arrived—through improvised piping. And yet, until recently, they clung to their land without complaining about their bitter fate.

Then, a few months ago, the Israeli arrived. Equipped with a gleaming caravan and an SUV (a gift from Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the state budget), he raised a proud blue-and-white flag, established an “outpost” or “farm” just dozens of metres from Ali’s house, and settled himself like a hand on their throat. From then on, the armed “Lord of the Land” has made Ali’s family’s lives miserable in every possible way.

This has included interference with water and electricity supply; theft of sheep and property; routine incursions—day and night—into their cramped living space, terrifying the women and children; demands to dismantle every “illegal” structure (in areas where Palestinians are never granted permits, whereas Israelis who violate the same law, like the neighbouring Lord of the Land, face no enforcement). It often includes terrifying “friendly advice” to vacate the area and move on “or else”.

The family’s fear of this man, backed by armed Israeli representatives of law and order, is paralysing. Every provocation is met with politeness lest it escalates into violence and arrest, as happened recently to Ali’s younger brother, who dared ask why he had to dismantle a shed he had built in his own yard.

The West Bank tour, one of many initiated by Major General (Res.) Mendi Or, a former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regional commander, was made up of a group of former senior officials from Israel’s security and diplomatic establishments. Having devoted the best years of our lives to defending the state, we remain informed, connected and active in various frameworks, including Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), a movement of more than 550 retired senior military, security-agency and foreign-service figures with which I am affiliated. We were exposed to a single surprising finding: everything we thought we knew about the deeds of violent settlers pales in comparison with the reality on the ground. One cannot fully grasp the meaning, scope and damage of Jewish terror without seeing and hearing about it first-hand.

Even before these tours, CIS had warned all those responsible—within the government, the Knesset (parliament), the IDF and the Shin Bet internal-security agency—of the dangers of allowing or encouraging violence by Jewish settlers in their push to expand settlements and control land far beyond them. Hundreds of West Bank Palestinians have died at the hands of settlers or Israeli soldiers since Hamas’s attacks on October 7th 2023; thousands have been displaced. The violence has escalated further since Israel and America went to war with Iran in February.

Failure to heed these warnings has helped create a Wild West Bank of terror, pogroms, looting and murder. These crimes are not just personal tragedies for those directly affected. They undermine the security of the Israeli state, its moral fabric and its international standing.

I have no way of predicting when something inside Ali will snap, when he will pick up a weapon, or whether he will join Hamas or act alone. I do not know whether he will murder the neighbouring Lord of the Land or a random victim.

Only one thing seems plausible to me: the day after something inside him bursts, the settler-trespassers and their enablers will declare, “We told you so. They are all terrorists.” They will then mobilise for their distorted “Zionist response” and emplace an Eternal Lord of the Land on the soil of the shahid they created.

And the cycle of terror and subjugation will grind on until the explosion of violence. ■