West Bank Siege Exposes Israel Army Inaction on Settler Violence

Despite being lauded as the Middle East's most powerful military force, capable of striking deep into enemy territory, the Israeli army has shown a striking inability to dislodge a small group of settlers occupying rocks in the occupied West Bank for over a week. This prolonged inaction has drawn international and domestic criticism, highlighting a perceived inertia within the military when confronting escalating settler violence against Palestinians.

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The government's support for extremist settlers puts the military in an "impossible situation," said Nimrod Novik, a senior advisor and special envoy to former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres.

Experts attribute this paralysis to a combination of factors, including strong government support for the settlement movement and the increasing influence of settler ideology within the army's ranks. The situation at Qusra, near Nablus, where settlers have been besieging Palestinians in their homes and blocking supplies, exemplifies this challenge. Despite repeated troop deployments, including a request from the United States for action concerning a besieged US citizen, the military's response has been largely limited to condemnatory statements, the detention of one Israeli, and the dismantling of settlers' tents.

Compounding the issue, soldiers were filmed praying with the settlers, an incident the military later vowed to address with disciplinary action. However, videos shared by besieged residents showed settlers returning to the site, interacting with Israeli forces. Nimrod Novik, a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, described the government's support for "extremist settlers" as placing the military in an "impossible situation," forcing a choice between professional duty and adherence to government policy that emboldens settlers.

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The military is "forced to choose between operating on the basis of its professional judgement and duty, which calls for applying harsh measures against violent settlers, or... adhere to government policy, which provides those terrorists with political backwind as well as resources," he told AFP.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with over 500,000 Israeli settlers now living in settlements deemed illegal under international law. The territory is home to approximately three million Palestinians. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, settlement construction has reached historic highs, with ministers openly advocating for annexation. Settler violence, though persistent, has seen a dramatic surge in recent months, with perpetrators largely escaping accountability.

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The result is paralysis with rare exceptions due either to the severity of the crimes or US intervention," Novik added.

Nadav Weiman, head of the advocacy group Breaking the Silence, stated that the occupation's infrastructure makes it "almost impossible" for soldiers to enforce the law on violent settlers while being very easy to act against Palestinians. He noted that rules of engagement for dealing with settlers are rarely clarified, leaving soldiers with ambiguous directives.

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The infrastructure of the occupation is built in a way that for a soldier, for us, it's almost impossible to enforce the law on violent settlers and very easy to do whatever we want on Palestinians," said Nadav Weiman, a former sniper who now heads Breaking the Silence, an advocacy group for Israeli veterans.