Israeli West Bank settler tells BBC attacks on Palestinians are justified as revenge

What the report says

BBC World News reports that settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank have intensified amid continued expansion of Israeli settlements and unauthorized outposts. In rare access to Havat Gilad, a settler outpost near Palestinian communities, BBC correspondent Lucy Williamson spoke with Yehuda Shimon, a resident and lawyer linked to an organization that represents Israelis arrested over violence against Palestinians.

Shimon said the weekend attacks on nearby Palestinian villages were, in his view, revenge for the killing of a security guard from Havat Gilad during a disputed confrontation in Tal last Friday. Four Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were also killed in that incident. He made highly inflammatory statements about Palestinians, which the BBC says were challenged during the interview. The report notes that many Israelis reject such views.

The article places the exchange in the wider context of a long-running conflict shaped by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank since 1967, the growth of settlements and outposts, and sharply unequal legal and security conditions for Israelis and Palestinians. The UN humanitarian office is cited as saying Palestinian fatalities and injuries in the West Bank have risen this year, including deaths during settler attacks. Human rights groups have described the system in the territory as apartheid, a label Israel rejects.

BBC also notes that Havat Gilad was built more than 20 years ago and that its legal status has been contested, with settlement watchdog Peace Now saying some of the land is privately owned by Palestinians.