Violence by fringe elements that live in the West Bank settlements, “which behave in a criminal and unethical manner, shame me as a Jew,” outgoing Binyamin Brigade Commander Lt.-Col. Eliav Elbaz said on Wednesday night.
He spoke at a ceremony in which he relinquished command to his successor, Liron Biton, after a two-year stint in the post, during which there was an increase in both Palestinian terror attacks and extreme settler violence against Palestinians.
Among such incidents in the Binyamin region in recent months was the terror attack at the gas station outside the Eli settlement that claimed four Israeli lives and the Jewish extremist attack against the Palestinian village of Turmus Aya during which a Palestinian man was killed.
Judea and Samaria Division head Lt. Col. Avi Blot thanked Elbaz for his contributions, noting that he had both been able to form strong relationships with the settlers in his region and to stand firm against violence by extremists in those communities.
“You entered people's hearts here, and you made friends here for life. At the same time, you knew in your wisdom, to stand firm,” Blot said as he pledged that the army would “enforce law and order” in the West Bank, including among Jewish extremists.
The IDF has been under attack by centrist and left-wing Israelis for not doing enough to combat violence by settler extremists against Palestinians.
Judea and Samaria Division head: Army will not stand by when settlers riot
Blot pledged that “the army will not stand by when there are [Jewish] lawbreakers who enter the villages, set fire to property, and endanger peoples’ lives.”
The army will respond to the “friction in grazing areas between the villages and settlements,” he said.
“It should be said in a loud clear voice, that actions of this type are not ethical, not Jewish, and do not contribute to security.”
Blot recalled that Elbaz had come under attack by Jewish extremists, alluding to the incident in which he had been heckled when he visited the home of one of the victims of the gas station attack.
“The fact that you, Elbaz had to suffer slander, while you went to comfort mourners, by people who do not represent the settlement, is shocking and worthy of all condemnation,” Blot said.
Elbaz said that these past two years have been among the most turbulent in Judea and Samaria in the past two decades, he said, and “two of the longest and most intense years...I have experienced.”
There have been over “2,000 arrest operations, countermeasures, seizures of weapons, and preventions of terrorist attacks on roads, in localities, and in the hinterland of the State of Israel.
“Two years of successes and failures,” he said.
“Every terrorist attack, every casualty… at every axis, junction or settlement in Judea and Samaria is like a punch in the stomach to the soul of the commander to whom the lives of the residents in his sector are entrusted,” he said.