Ex-Israeli Generals Denounce West Bank Violence as 'Ethnic Cleansing'

(MENAFN) A group of former senior Israeli military and security officials has condemned occupier violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with several describing the campaign as "ethnic cleansing," according to The New York Times.

Retired Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh, who also served as Israeli health minister, did not mince words when discussing the attacks: "This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply," he told the newspaper.

Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven, who previously led Israel's ground forces and commanded a division stationed in the West Bank, said settler violence troubles him more than any other threat facing the country. "This, what the settlers are doing here, is the real threat to Israel," he said. "This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon."

The remarks emerged as retired generals and former officials have been conducting tours through Palestinian communities in the West Bank to document the toll of occupier violence, including assaults on farmers and shepherds and the demolition of property.

Palestinians who spoke with the visiting delegation described being cut off from their homes, farmland, and grazing land after sustained attacks.

In the village of Burin, farmer Bashar Eid — now walking with a limp after an assault left him permanently disabled — said the violence has made it impossible to work his land. "I don't know what to do," he said. "They want to take my house."

In the Jordan Valley, mostly Bedouin communities such as Hamamat al-Maleh have been emptied out by repeated attacks, the Times reported. By the time the paper visited in February, only a handful of families remained after nighttime raids drove most residents away.

"We don't even sleep an hour," said 37-year-old resident Mohammad Khalil. "If they come and you're asleep, you won't survive it."

Within weeks, Khalil and the last remaining families had also fled, following continued raids, thefts, and attacks, according to the Times.

Elsewhere in the Jordan Valley, one Palestinian farmer said a nearby occupier outpost and newly erected fencing had severed his family's access to farmland and grazing areas. "Six months ago, this was our land," he said. "Now, it's like a jail."

The findings echo a June letter signed by more than 200 prominent Israelis demanding an end to violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, the Times noted. Signatories included two former prime ministers, over 30 retired generals from the army and air force, and former chiefs of Israel's domestic and foreign intelligence services, alongside ex-officials, rabbis, and other public figures.

The letter called for an end to what signatories termed "Jewish terrorism" and "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank, and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of pursuing "a deliberate government policy in which the entire security establishment — including the military, Shin Bet and the police — is knowingly complicit."

Signatories also pointed to state funding of illegal settlement outposts and farms, demanding transparency over public money spent on infrastructure and support for them. They further alleged that Israeli soldiers have at times failed to intervene during attacks on Palestinians — or joined occupiers in assaulting Palestinian communities.

Moshe Ya'alon, a former Israeli army chief of staff and defense minister under Netanyahu, took aim at extremist ideology among occupiers, invoking a stark historical comparison: "What is Jewish supremacy? Eighty years after the Holocaust, 'Mein Kampf' in reverse. The master race is us."

Asaf Agmon, a retired Israeli Air Force general who joined one of the tours, said efforts to push Palestinians out of parts of the West Bank evoked what Jews endured under Nazi rule — though he emphasized he wasn't equating the scale of violence. "Once a society behaves this way," he said, "that society is doomed."

Citing UN data, the Times reported that Israeli occupiers have carried out thousands of attacks in the West Bank since October 2023, wounding thousands of Palestinians. More than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced this year alone — double last year's rate — while daily injury figures have climbed from roughly one every three days in 2020 to more than three per day in 2026.

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