{"id":315129,"date":"2026-04-20T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=315129"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:59:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:59:28","slug":"israeli-journalist-with-deep-ties-to-idf-admits-west-bank-violence-looks-like-ethnic-cleansing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/04\/israeli-journalist-with-deep-ties-to-idf-admits-west-bank-violence-looks-like-ethnic-cleansing\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Journalist with Deep Ties to IDF Admits West Bank Violence \u2018Looks Like… Ethnic Cleansing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Israeli settler from the new outpost of Karmel records movements in the Palestinian village of Um el-Kheir on 14 Apr 2026.\u00a0 (Photo by Hazem Bader \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians are \u201crather sophisticated, organized, and funded systematic actions,\u201d with the goal of \u201ccleansing\u201d the entire region, said journalist Ron Ben-Yishai.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

16 Apr 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0An Israeli war correspondent who has been described as having deep ties to the Israel Defense Forces<\/a> said that intensifying settler violence in the occupied West Bank<\/a> appears to be \u201cethnic cleansing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an column published by Ynet titled \u201cThis looks like blue and white ethnic cleansing,\u201d journalist Ron Ben-Yishai wrote<\/a> that, during a recent tour of the West Bank, he observed \u201ca disturbing reality\u201d of Israeli teenagers \u201cwho go on \u2018intimidation tours\u2019\u201d in Palestinian villages, attacking Palestinians<\/a> while members of the Israeli military frequently either stand by or actively join in the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, these are reservists who also identify ideologically with the rioters, and therefore stand by and do not prevent them from going wild\u2014and sometimes even help them,\u201d explained Ben-Yishai. \u201cEven in the regular IDF units stationed in the territories, there have been quite a few cases in which commanders and fighters have deviated from the norms and the IDF\u2019s code of ethics for religious-nationalist reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

In conversations with Israeli settlers, Ben-Yishai often found that they believed they were entitled by God to take all land where Palestinians reside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confident reliance on God\u2019s command as the answer to all moral and practical questions and concerns,\u201d he wrote, \u201cgave me a disturbing feeling that this was a type of Jewish terrorism motivated by religious and nationalist motives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben-Yishai also described ways in which Israeli settlers surround Palestinian communities \u201cin order to prevent them from moving freely and strangle them economically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, Ben-Yishai concluded that the Israel settler attacks on Palestinians are a \u201crather sophisticated, organized, and funded systematic actions\u2014with the long-term strategic goal being to \u2018cleanse\u2019 most of\u201d the West Bank and Gaza<\/a> of Palestinian presence.<\/p>\n

In a social media<\/a> post, geopolitical analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim explained<\/a> how significant it was for someone like Ben-Yishai, whom he said has \u201cthe deepest ties to the IDF of any reporter,\u201d to describe West Bank settlers\u2019 actions as ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

\u201cObservers have been saying for years that what is happening in the West Bank is ethnic cleansing,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut now voices from the heart of the Israeli consensus are admitting it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\n

Brad Reed is a staff writer for <\/em>Common Dreams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Full Bio ><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original – commondreams.org<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Apr 2026\u00a0–\u00a0West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians are \u201crather sophisticated, organized, and funded systematic actions,\u201d with the goal of \u201ccleansing\u201d the entire region, said journalist Ron Ben-Yishai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":315130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,1559,532,405,1854,101,100,1199,865,88,2416,427,3534,2897,880,99,70,965,1025],"class_list":["post-315129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-collective-punishment","tag-colonialism","tag-colonization","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-holocaust","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315132,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315129\/revisions\/315132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}