Has the Israeli state lost control of the settler movement?
A Palestinian man records a burning truck with his phone after an Israeli settler attack in Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on 11 November 2025
Kate McMahon writes in The New Arab on 1 December, 2025:
In a rare move, senior Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and Defence Minister Israel Katz – have publicly condemned the recent wave of settler attacks across the occupied West Bank.
Settler attacks surged during the olive harvest in October, marking the most violent month on record since the UN began keeping records in 2006.
Since the Gaza war began, there has been a marked increase in gangs of settlers, usually composed of young, masked men, patrolling the hills of the West Bank and launching attacks against Palestinians and their property.
For decades, Israeli policy facilitated the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and settler attacks on Palestinian communities. Settlers were de facto tasked with terrorising Palestinians into leaving their land to make way for Jewish settlements, supporting Israel’s goal of annexation.
But now, the settler movement the state helped empower has become chaotic and increasingly uncontrollable, increasingly turning on the Israeli army itself.
The recent spike in settler attacks, including settlers clubbing a 55-year-old Palestinian woman picking olives and stoning a Reuters journalist, is also causing a media frenzy and drawing international condemnation, increasing pressure on the Israeli administration to rein in the settlers. On Thursday, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK issued a joint statement condemning settler violence and calling for stability in the West Bank. “These attacks are harmful to the ongoing peace efforts and for the lasting security of the State of Israel itself,” it said.
The Israeli state now faces a dilemma: the force it created to advance its annexation goals in the West Bank is now acting independently, drawing international scrutiny and undermining domestic stability.