Former Israeli generals call West Bank occupier violence ‘ethnic cleansing’

Former senior Israeli military and security officials have denounced Israeli occupier violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with some calling it "ethnic cleansing," The New York Times reported Sunday.

"This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply," retired Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh, who is also a former Israeli health minister, said of attacks on Palestinians, according to the newspaper.

Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven, a former commander of Israel's ground forces who also commanded a division in the West Bank, said occupier violence posed a greater concern to him than other security fronts.

"This, what the settlers are doing here, is the real threat to Israel," Ben-Reuven said. "This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon."

The comments came as retired Israeli generals and former senior officials have been touring Palestinian communities in the West Bank to examine the impact of occupier violence, including attacks on farmers and shepherds and the destruction of property.

Palestinian residents told the visiting officials they had lost access to their homes, farmland and grazing areas amid repeated attacks.

In the West Bank village of Burin, limping Palestinian farmer Bashar Eid said an occupier attack had left him permanently impaired and that repeated attacks prevented him from farming his land.

"I don't know what to do," Eid said. "They want to take my house."

In the Jordan Valley, repeated attacks forced Palestinian families to leave the largely Bedouin encampments like Hamamat al-Maleh, according to the Times.

Only a few families remained when the Times visited in February after nighttime incursions forced most residents to flee, it said.

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

By March, Khalil and the remaining families had also left following a series of raids, thefts and attacks, the newspaper reported.

In another Jordan Valley community, a Palestinian farmer said an occupier outpost and fencing had cut his family off from farmland and grazing areas.

"Six months ago, this was our land," he said. "Now, it's like a jail."

More than 200 prominent Israelis signed a letter in June demanding an end to attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, according to the Times.

The signatories included two former prime ministers, more than 30 retired army and air force generals and former heads of Israel's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies. Former officials, rabbis and other public figures also signed.

They called for an end to what they described as "Jewish terrorism" and "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank.

The signatories also accused the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing "a deliberate government policy in which the entire security establishment — including the military, Shin Bet and the police — is knowingly complicit."

They pointed to government funding for illegal Israeli settlement outposts and farms and demanded an accounting of public funds used to provide infrastructure and other support for them.

They also accused Israeli soldiers of sometimes standing by during attacks on Palestinians or participating alongside occupiers in assaults on Palestinian communities.

Moshe Ya'alon, a former Israeli army chief of staff and defense minister under Netanyahu, criticized extremist occupier ideology.

"What is Jewish supremacy?" Ya'alon said in remarks cited by the newspaper. "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 remove Palestinians from parts of the West Bank reminded him of what Jews endured under Nazi rule. He stressed that he was not comparing the scale of the violence.

"Once a society behaves this way," he said, "that society is doomed."

Israeli occupiers have carried out thousands of attacks in the West Bank since October 2023, injuring thousands of Palestinians, according to UN figures cited by the Times.

According to UN figures cited by the Times, Israeli occupiers have carried out thousands of attacks in the West Bank since October 2023, injuring thousands of Palestinians.

More than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced by occupier attacks so far this year, twice the rate recorded last year, while the average number of Palestinians injured in such attacks has risen from one every three days in 2020 to more than three per day in 2026, the report said.