The government has ordered security forces to enable terrorism because it serves their territorial ambitions.
Within the occupied West Bank, a reckoning is taking shape not from outside Israel but from within its own founding institutions. Dozens of former prime ministers, security chiefs, judges, and cultural luminaries have formally accused their government of enabling what they call Jewish terrorism and ethnic cleansing — a charge made more striking by who is making it. Their leaked letter, threatening petition to Israel's high court if ignored, arrives as the country approaches elections and as more than a thousand Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, remain unaccounted for by any court of law. It is a moment when a nation's conscience, long held in tension, has begun to speak in its own legal language.
- A leaked letter from the heart of Israel's establishment — former prime ministers, Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs, a Nobel laureate, and the country's most celebrated novelist — formally accuses Netanyahu's government of deliberately enabling settler violence against Palestinians.
- Since 2020, at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians, including 250 children, have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, with no prosecutions — a legal void the signatories call not negligence but policy.
- The letter catalogs murder, arson, sexual assault, and desecration carried out with near-total impunity, and argues that soldiers have in many cases participated directly, using military-issued weapons and wearing partial uniform.
- The signatories compare the violence to historical pogroms against Jewish communities in Eastern Europe — a comparison designed to land with maximum moral weight inside Israeli political culture.
- If the government does not act, the group threatens to petition Israel's high court, raising the prospect of a constitutional confrontation just months before October elections that Netanyahu's coalition is expected to contest.
- The government has not responded, and the broader Israeli public debate has yet to fully absorb what amounts to the establishment speaking, in legal terms, against itself.
A leaked letter circulating within Israel's political and security establishment amounts to something rare: a formal accusation by the country's own former leaders that their government is enabling Jewish terrorism in the occupied West Bank. The signatories — including two former prime ministers, the former heads of every major Israeli security agency, sitting and former judges, a Nobel laureate, and the nation's most celebrated living novelist — have issued what they describe as a final warning to Benjamin Netanyahu's government. They are demanding immediate action to stop violence against Palestinians, and if their demands go unmet, they say they will petition Israel's high court.
The letter, obtained by The Guardian, catalogs years of attacks by settlers and soldiers: murder, sexual assault, arson, theft, desecration of the dead. The signatories argue these acts have occurred with near-total impunity — not because of enforcement failures, but because of deliberate government policy. They contend that Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners have ordered security forces to allow Jewish attackers to operate freely, as the resulting terror serves their territorial ambitions. Since 2020, at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians have been killed in the West Bank, including at least 250 children. No one has been prosecuted.
The depth of the alarm is visible in who has signed. Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, both former prime ministers, are among the signatories, alongside four former defense and justice ministers, more than thirty former security commanders, former chiefs of staff of the Israeli military, and the former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet, and the national police. The letter also draws a striking historical parallel, comparing the violence to pogroms against Jewish communities in Eastern Europe — a comparison calibrated to carry maximum moral weight within Israeli political culture.
The letter implicates the military directly, arguing that the IDF has adopted a clear policy of ignoring crimes by Jewish attackers, and that in many cases soldiers from regional defense units participated in the violence themselves, some carrying military-issued weapons. The military and police have each blamed the other for failing to prosecute, creating a jurisdictional void in which violence goes unpunished.
Drafted by lawyer Shmuel Berkowitz and distributed to the prime minister's office, defense and national security ministries, and intelligence services, the letter has received no government response. Its explicit threat of legal action arrives as Israel heads toward elections at the end of October, raising the prospect of a constitutional crisis brewing within the establishment itself — one the broader Israeli public debate has not yet fully absorbed.
A leaked letter circulating among Israel's security and political establishment amounts to something rare: a formal accusation by the country's own former leaders that their government is enabling what they call Jewish terrorism in the occupied West Bank. The signatories—two former prime ministers, former heads of every major Israeli security agency, judges, a Nobel laureate, and the nation's most celebrated living novelist—have issued what they describe as a final warning to Benjamin Netanyahu's government. They are demanding immediate action to stop violence against Palestinians, and if their demands go unmet, they say they will petition Israel's high court to force intervention.
The letter, which has not been publicly released but was obtained by The Guardian, catalogs years of attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinians: murder, sexual assault, theft, arson, desecration of the dead. The signatories argue these acts have occurred with near-total impunity, enabled by a government that they say has made ethnic cleansing and territorial annexation official policy. The language is blunt. They write that the violence is not a failure of military and police enforcement, but rather the deliberate implementation of government ideology—that Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners have ordered security forces to allow Jewish attackers to operate freely because the resulting terror serves their territorial ambitions.
The scale of the violence they are describing is substantial. Since 2020, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, according to UN data. At least a quarter of those killed were children. No one has been prosecuted for any of these deaths. The signatories note that the identities and locations of the violence's leaders are known to Israeli authorities—they estimate the core group numbers only a few hundred people—yet arrests and prosecutions have not followed.
Who has signed this letter reveals the depth of the alarm within Israel's establishment. The group includes Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, both former prime ministers. It includes four former defense and justice ministers. More than thirty former security commanders have signed, among them two former chiefs of staff of the Israeli military, and the former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet, and the national police. Beyond the security sector, signatories include David Grossman, widely regarded as Israel's greatest living novelist, and David Kornberg, a Nobel laureate in chemistry. Ten recipients of the Israel Prize have signed, as has a former attorney general, sitting and former judges, senior government legal advisers, the former CEO of Tel Aviv University, rabbis, and former ambassadors. This is not a fringe group. This is the Israeli establishment speaking against itself.
The letter draws a striking historical parallel. The signatories compare the violence in the West Bank to pogroms committed against Jewish communities in Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries—a comparison that carries particular weight in Israeli political culture. They argue that the campaign of terror against Palestinians violates both Israeli and international law, damages Israel's security by risking Palestinian retaliation or uprising, isolates the country internationally, and fuels antisemitism worldwide. They specifically challenge Netanyahu's claim from the previous year that settler violence was the work of a few dozen teenagers, calling that characterization baseless.
The letter also implicates the Israeli military directly. The signatories argue that the IDF has adopted a clear policy of ignoring crimes committed by Jewish attackers. In many cases, they note, soldiers from regional defense units and settlement security squads have themselves participated in the violence. Some attackers have been members of these units, some in partial uniform, some carrying weapons supplied by the Israeli military or national security ministry. The military and police have each blamed the other for failing to prosecute, creating a jurisdictional void in which violence goes unpunished.
The letter was drafted and sent by lawyer Shmuel Berkowitz and distributed to the prime minister's office, the defense and national security ministries, the military, police, and intelligence services. The government has not responded to requests for comment. What makes this moment significant is not just the identity of the signatories or the severity of their accusations, but the explicit threat of legal action. If Netanyahu, his defense minister, his national security minister, and his security commanders do not condemn and stop the violence, the group says it will petition the high court. This threat arrives as Israel heads toward elections scheduled for the end of October, with Netanyahu's coalition expected to seek another term. The letter represents a potential constitutional crisis brewing within the Israeli establishment itself—one that the broader Israeli public debate has not yet fully absorbed.
Citas Notables
This is not solely a military and police failure, but the implementation of an overt policy by the Israeli government and its prime minister— The leaked letter from Israeli security and political elite
The IDF has a clear policy of ignoring the crimes of Jewish terrorism, and in many incidents soldiers from regional defense units are themselves involved— The letter to Netanyahu's government
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why would Israel's own security chiefs risk their reputations by going this far?
Because they believe the violence has crossed a line from criminal acts into state policy. They're not saying the government is failing to stop terrorism—they're saying the government is orchestrating it.
But these are people who built the occupation. How do they justify that?
They don't. Some of them presided over settlement expansion themselves. What they're saying is that there's a difference between occupation and ethnic cleansing, and they believe the current government has crossed that line.
What does the threat of legal action actually mean?
It means they're willing to go to Israel's high court and ask judges to order the government to prosecute. It's a constitutional escalation—essentially saying the executive branch has failed its duty.
Why hasn't anyone been charged for 1,100 deaths?
The letter suggests it's deliberate. The military and police each claim the other has jurisdiction. It's a system designed to produce impunity.
Could this actually change anything before the elections?
That's the gamble. They're hoping the threat of court action forces Netanyahu's hand before October. If not, they follow through and create a legal crisis in the middle of a campaign.
What does it mean that even the Nobel laureate signed?
It signals this isn't a political disagreement anymore. It's a statement that the violence has become incompatible with Israel's self-image as a democracy and a Jewish state.