Report: Cabinet quietly okayed plan to curb settler violence; PM called phenomenon ‘cancer’

The cabinet approved a plan in March to tackle violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, but it, along with harsh criticism by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the phenomenon, was not made public due to political considerations, according to a Monday report.

During deliberations on the plan, Netanyahu referred to the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as a “metastasizing cancer,” Channel 13 news reported, citing what it said was the official summary of the discussion — which, if true, would be among the premier’s harshest comments on the matter.

The cabinet reportedly approved plans that included financial sanctions against violent Israeli hilltop youth in the West Bank. The plan’s title was said to be the biblical verse “Turn away from evil and do good” — with the first part meaning the elimination of the extremist violence, while the latter part referred to the expansion of settlements.

The plans approved by the government were not revealed for political reasons, with Netanyahu and other unspecified ministers wanting it to remain hidden, Channel 13 reported, citing unnamed Israeli sources.

Shin Bet head David Zini and other security officials pushed for the decision and for Netanyahu’s comments to be publicized, believing this could contribute to curbing the violence, but the cabinet refused, the network reported.

The report didn’t say whether the plan has been implemented. No up-to-date figures have been published on whether attacks have gone down since March, but media reports on the phenomenon haven’t featured a noticeable slowdown.

In response to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office told Channel 13: “The position of the prime minister is clear: nationalist crimes in Judea and Samaria are a grave phenomenon caused by a small handful who do huge damage to the State of Israel in the world, and we must root it out at its source,” using the biblical name for the West Bank.

“This phenomenon causes immense grief to the settler public in Judea and Samaria, law-abiding citizens who hold our lands and serve heroically in the IDF’s ranks,” the PMO added, without denying the report.

Netanyahu asserted in December 2025 that violent settlers numbered just some 70 youths who, he said, were not even from the West Bank. Earlier this month, however, he revised that figure upward to 150 “juvenile delinquents,” who he said were “brought into the West Bank.”

However, activists on the ground have said those behind the attacks are Israelis who have established illegal outposts throughout the West Bank in record numbers over the past three years. Netanyahu’s government has provided significant funding and protection to these wildcat communities, which critics say are being used as a tool to dispossess Palestinians of their lands.

Israel has come under fire for rarely carrying out arrests in instances of settler violence, with indictments and convictions even more infrequent.

Shin Bet figures from earlier this year found that three times more Palestinians were victims of terror attacks in the West Bank than Jews.

The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.