Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday issued a rare condemnation of West Bank settler violence under pressure from the United States.
“I condemn this, and we will act against it,” he said.
Netanyahu issued his statement after meeting with settler leaders from the Yesha Council on Wednesday night and two days after he spoke with US President Joe Biden.
According to the White House, Biden “discussed the situation in the West Bank” with Netanyahu and “the need to hold extremist settlers accountable for violent acts” against Palestinians.
Settlers do not represent all Israelis
At the meeting with settler leaders, Netanyahu said he told “Biden that the allegations against the settlers are baseless,” adding that the violence stems from “a small extreme minority that does not come from the settlements.”
“We condemn it and deal with it with all the severity of the law,” Netanyahu said he told Biden.
Similarly, Netanyahu in his public statement on Wednesday emphasized that Jewish extremists who attack Palestinians in the West Bank represent a small fraction of the overall Israeli population in Judea and Samaria.
“There is a tiny handful of people who do not represent this public and that take the law into their own hands,” he said. “We are not prepared to tolerate this. We are not prepared to accept this. We will take all action against them. This causes severe international damage to the State of Israel, and it does not represent the public here.”
According to the United Nations, eight Palestinians, including one child, “have been killed by Israeli settlers.”
The attacks have inflamed an already volatile situation in the West Bank.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken with Israeli officials during his visit last weekend about the need to stop Jewish extremist violence.