High Court knocks IDF over failure to protect Palestinians from settler violence
Order singles out illegal outpost resident accused of trespassing on Palestinian land, with court asking military why it hasn’t barred him from doing so
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The High Court of Justice on Thursday issued a conditional order against the commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, and the head of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration department, Brig. Gen Hisham Ibrahim, ordering them to justify their failure to protect a group of Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley from harassment and violence by settlers.
The court order specified in particular Moshe Sharvit, the manager and resident of an illegal outpost in the region close to the West Bank settlement of Hamra, and asked the Israel Defense Forces and the Civil Administration why they have not used their authority to bar Sharvit from entering the land and dwelling areas of the Palestinian farmers who filed the petition.
The court also asked the IDF and Civil Administration to justify their failure to take effective measures to prevent Sharvit from encroaching on land which he is not entitled to work.
And the court asked the IDF and Civil Administration to justify their failure to guarantee access for the Palestinian farmers to their land and their ability to work it. The order mentioned specifically a gate built on an access road in the area, allegedly by Sharvit, which has blocked the farmers from accessing their own land.
Sharvit established his illegal farming outpost in 2020 and put up a gate blocking the Palestinian farmers’ access to their land in October 2023, while serially harassing them.
According to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which filed the petition, IDF soldiers who Sharvit called when Palestinian farmers sought to reach their own land ordered the farmers off their own land.
In March 2025, a court issued restraining orders against Sharvit over his actions toward the local Palestinians, but ACRI said he violated the order three days later.
Sharvit has previously been hit with sanctions by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States for his violent conduct toward Palestinians in the area, although the US sanctions were subsequently removed.
“The military’s failure to act is not passivity – it is complicity,” said Noa Sattath, ACRI’s Executive Director. “Soldiers have repeatedly arrived on the scene at Sharvit’s request and ordered Palestinian landowners off their own land. That is not law enforcement. That is the enforcement of lawlessness. Amid the military and police failure to act, we are determined to use every tool we have to end settler violence — also by targeting violent settlers.”
The High Court ruling was issued as settler violence has surged in the West Bank. On Thursday, masked settlers were filmed assaulting a Palestinian man outside his property in the southern West Bank city of Halhul.
The settlers could be seen arriving at the scene on an ATV, similar to the ones that the government has gifted to residents of illegal outposts in the West Bank.
The suspects were seen striking the Palestinian with clubs and stones.
There were no reports of any arrests, which are highly rare in incidents of settler violence.
רעולי פנים תקפו היום פלסטיני באלות ואבנים מחוץ לשטח הפרטי שלו בסמוך לעיר חלחול@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/JVsvdtxLZH
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 26, 2026
In a separate incident on Thursday near the village of Duma, a settler can be seen hitting a Palestinian toddler with a stick.
#شاهد | لحظة اعتداء مستوطن على طفل خلال اقتحام تجمع "الشجرة" البدوي شرقي بلدة دوما، جنوب نابلس. pic.twitter.com/JbdbcK6W9c
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) February 26, 2026
Settler attacks have spiked since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught against Israel from Gaza. The attacks, which occur on a near-daily basis, largely go unchecked. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, described as the most hardline in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.
Data published by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency last month showed a 27 percent rise in settler attacks in 2025 compared to the previous year.
In addition to the overall rise in settler attacks, in 2025 there was also an increase in the number of severe incidents, including shootings, arson, and other violent crimes: 128 in the past year, compared with 83 in 2024 and 54 in 2023, according to the data.
The Times of Israel Community.