Shin Bet says police refusing to allocate forces for fighting Jewish terror in West Bank

Ruined houses in the West Bank village of Mukhmas after it was attacked by Israeli settlers, January 2026

Josh Breiner reports in Haaretz on 10 February 2026:

Senior Shin Bet security service officials have recently accused the Israel Police of avoiding the allocation of forces for operations against far-right activists and Jewish terrorism in the West Bank, according to sources present in private discussions, whose contents were obtained by Haaretz.

According to officials, police had previously agreed to deploy special units to tackle what is described as nationalist crime, but are now repeatedly refusing to allocate forces for operational activity, even after multiple requests from the Shin Bet.

According to several sources, an emergency discussion was convened at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in November amid a rise in incidents of Jewish terrorism, including arson attacks and assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Following the meeting, it was agreed that the police would allocate operational forces to support the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division, including Unit 33, considered an elite unit within Lahav 433, the police’s major-crimes division. That commitment, the sources say, has not been implemented.  As incidents of Jewish terrorism in the West Bank have spiked, senior Shin Bet officials have been forced to raise the issue with senior police figures and law enforcement officials.

“The Shin Bet is being ignored by the police when it comes to cooperation on nationalist crime,” a senior law enforcement official told Haaretz, hinting that the force is avoiding action out of fear of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“Everyone understands why the police are dragging their feet,” the official added.  Relations between the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division and the police, particularly the West Bank Police District, have been strained since Ben-Gvir took office. Tensions intensified after a criminal investigation was opened against Avishai Mualem, then-commander of the district’s major crimes unit, who is accused of ignoring Shin Bet intelligence on far-right activists and Jewish terrorism and of avoiding arrests, allegedly to please the minister and secure a promotion.

In July, Haaretz revealed that Shin Bet officials had complained about the conduct of Mualem and the West Bank Police District, and that mistrust had developed between the agencies after the Shin Bet refused to grant the police access to its sources.

Also in July, Haaretz reported on a heated argument between West Bank Police District chief Moshe Pinchi and a senior Shin Bet official during a discussion mainly focused on Palestinian terrorism, with part of the meeting devoted to Jewish terrorism. Pinchi demanded formalized relations between the agencies and greater police access to intelligence on far-right activists.

In October, Haaretz reported that relations had further deteriorated to the point of a complete breakdown. This was compounded by the investigation into Mualem, which revealed, among other things, that he had secretly recorded his Shin Bet counterparts. Some of those recordings led to the removal of the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division from his post.

According to police data, during the first two weeks of 2026, an average of about four nationalist crimes were reported daily in the West Bank. The Bedouin community of Mukhmas in the central West Bank has been a particular target, enduring repeated assaults for several months.

In January, settlers entered Mukhmas and set fire to several houses. A man and a woman were trapped inside one of the homes, with the settlers preventing their escape. When the couple eventually managed to flee, they were severely beaten.

The Shin Bet and police declined to comment on this article.

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