Israel’s Ben-Gvir defends settler violence in West Bank

JERUSALEM

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday defended the settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Settler violence “is a marginal phenomenon and there is a sharp decrease in the actions of Jews against Arabs,” Ben-Gvir said during a situation assessment meeting cited by Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

During the meeting, the far-right minister engaged in a confrontation with representatives of the National Security Agency and Shin Bet service about the settler violence.

“How did we get to a situation where you are distributing data independently, which is both incorrect and causes significant damage to the country,” Ben-Gvir asked.

The NAS representative said new data from the army and Shin Bet highlighted the settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Ben-Gvir, a settler himself, responded angrily saying: “Since when do the IDF (army) and the Shin Bet conduct such investigations and publish statistics? There is one body that collects data on crimes, and that is the Israel Police.”

The Shin Bet representative intervened, saying there was a discrepancy between the data of the police and the army.

“But we think that the police’s data do not reflect all the incidents,” he added.

Israeli settlers have carried out more than 2,270 attacks this year against Palestinians and damaged their properties, resulting in the deaths of 17 Palestinians, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

Tensions have been growing across the occupied West Bank amid almost daily Israeli military raids into Palestinian towns.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio