Settler violence as a pre election strategy

JVL Introduction

Israel’s government is increasingly one of the settlers, by the settlers and for the settlers. All settlements are illegal under international law, which forbids moving your own population into occupied territory. The first settlement beyond the Green Line was established soon after the 1967 six day war and has been growing every since.  Netanyahu’s reliance on settlers to join a coalition and keep him in power has meant dramatic settlement expansion and violence and further expansion has taken place since October 7th 2023.  The language and actions used against the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank indicate that the ideas of Meir Kahane, once banned in Israel, are now part of the mainstream.

Settler attacks have averaged six each and every day in 2026.  Often activists are denied access to try to protect Palestinians as Israeli soldiers declare a “closed military zone” and yet the settlers doing the attacking are not asked to leave.

Governments condemn the violence and, indeed the settlement expansion – as the UK’s new Middle East Minister, Stephen Doughty has done.  However, words are rarely met with any action and never with any meaningful action. Where are the sanctions – not just on individual “extremist” settlers but on the whole enterprise?  It is simply not possible to separate out the actions of settlers and the existence of settlements from the State of Israel itself.

The next election takes place this October and there is likely to be more settler violence in the run up to that. The recent surge in violence has brought some legacy media coverage but this “…isn’t random. Analysts describe it as a race to lock in facts on the ground before the upcoming vote can change the balance of power, potentially away from ultra-right-wing parties that have enabled settlers to rapidly encroach on Palestinian land”

This article was originally published by New Arab on Thu 6 Aug 2026. Read the original here.