July 31, 2026

by Mark Gold

Last weekend’s West Bank violence was depressingly familiar. Settlers burned two mosques in separate villages and attacked a family whose land settlers had grabbed near the West Bank village of Tell. When family members met the armed settler group, a fight ensued in which one settler attacker, and four family members were killed. An Israeli soldier also died in connection with the incident. The army, which had aided the settlers, then cancelled leave and sent reinforcements into the West Bank sweeping into towns to make arrests.

The Israeli Security Service (Shin Bet) and hundreds of retired army officers have warned that the ongoing program of settler violence risks igniting another Intifada, but this has made no impression on either the government or the army which operates in complicitly with the informal settler gangs who have hastened their activity to grab as much as they can before October’s election and a likely transfer of power.

Settler violence has been the leading tool of a government policy of Palestinian marginalization and displacement actively pursued by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, in control of the police, Border Patrol, and his newly created National Guard militia, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The army has permitted itself to be absorbed into these activities as an accessory. Army soldiers have been filmed moving together with settlers, standing by while the settlers harass local Palestinians and attack them. Where settlers act without army escorts, Palestinian calls for army protection go unanswered. Civilian “protective presence” observers can temporarily prevent assaults but often are removed by the army which declares the neighborhood where the observers are watching a “closed military area.” In the wake of the deaths at Tell, the army complained there was no “civilian address” to support restraint of settlers. But this is an excuse. The army is the legal authority in area C of the West Bank with the responsibility to maintain order there; it also has the power to prevent the movement of armed settler marauders as they assault Palestinians in areas A and B.

To be fair, however, the army does have a problem. In the wake of October 7, the government spread thousands of weapons among settler communities in the West Bank.

The corruption of the army and its cooptation into the Netanyahu government’s program of illicit terror on the West Bank is an extension of the corruption of the army’s role in Gaza. Initially, the army had a legitimate self defense role to protect Israeli citizens and degrade Hamas capacities to harm the country. The Netanyahu government, however, transformed the war into one in which the explicit goal was Palestinian displacement, and used the army to advance that program, which included the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the use of food as a control tool.
Nor is the corruption of institutions restricted to areas outside of Israel’s borders. To make existence unpalatable within Israel, the Netanyahu government has effectively withdrawn police operations in Palestinian Israeli communities, allowing organized crime and violence to fester.
Following well-worn historical paths, the extreme right wing Netanyahu government has sought to corrupt the judiciary by attempting to transform the judicial appointment process into a political one it could dominate. Until now, however, the government has been stymied by massive public protests. The courts have been a barrier to Haredi draft evasion, the appointment to government office of convicted fraudsters, and the politicization of legal and prosecution offices including the office of the Attorney General. The current Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, has had responsibility for overseeing the prosecution of corruption cases against government officials including the Prime Minister. The Supreme Court blocked a 2025 government effort to remove Baharav-Miara. Unable to dislodge an honest and competent official, in July, the governing coalition passed a law to increase the political role in future Attorney General appointments and to allow Cabinet officers to reject the legal advice of the Attorney General.

The government, in 2025, also sought to remove the head of the Israel Security Service, Ronen Barr who, at the time, was conducting a corruption investigation into government officials. The Supreme Court blocked Ronen’s dismissal. In a compromise, Ronen stepped down to allow the appointment of retired IDF Maj. Gen. David Zini. In a subsequent leak, it was revealed that Zini took the appointment to promote loyalty to the political leadership instead of providing objective service. Zini has sidelined the Shin Bet’s internal legal department.

Democratic rule depends on the rule of law and the existence of independent institutions that limit government power by enforcing conformity with law in the public interest. The degradation of the rule of law and the corruption of state institutions designed to ensure conformity with law and the protection of citizens reflects the current Israeli government’s contempt for democracy and the rule of law. It also reflects the fact that the government sees existing law as a barrier to its program of displacement of non-Jews from the West Bank and Gaza and also from inside the borders of the Israel. Unfortunately, the government actions also rest on a broader moral decay, a self-feeding process generated, in part, by decades of Occupation and ideologies of entitlement.

Elections will likely bring an end to the current extremist government, and the political opposition has expressed the desire to reenforce public institutions and the rule of law. Long-term success, however, will require a commitment to confront not only banal corruption but also the ideologies of entitlement and the culture of lawless violence those ideologies have promoted.