‘Jews are allowed, Arabs have to get out,’ armed settler tells Palestinians, activists

An armed settler who claimed to have military authority drove off a group of Israeli civil rights activists and Palestinian farmers from privately owned land in Area B of the West Bank last week, asserting that only Jews could stay and that Arabs had to leave.

“Jews are allowed to be here. Arabs have to get out of here, this is a closed military zone,” the individual, who was masked and armed with an assault rifle, declared to activists from the Bnei Avraham organization and farmers from the town of Tarqumiyah, north-west of Hebron.

The settler was accompanied by three IDF soldiers, all carrying assault rifles, two of whom appeared to be from a regional defense unit — uniformed settlers mobilized by the army who have been implicated in severe violence against Palestinians.

The IDF frequently issues closed military zone orders against Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank for various reasons, although the High Court of Justice ruled in January this year that such orders cannot be issued against civil rights activists unless there is concrete proof that they, and not settler extremists, are likely to disturb public order.

Such orders cannot be issued on the basis of ethnic identity either. The armed settler did not produce a closed military zone order when he first ordered the group to leave, saying merely that it was “on its way.”

The IDF said in response that “the civilian,” meaning the armed settler, “acted outside the scope of his authority,” although did not explain his role or for what purpose he had a military-issued assault rifle.

“The conduct of the soldiers documented in the video does not conform to what is expected of a military force,” the IDF said in its response, adding that “procedures on the matter had been clarified and reiterated for all involved.”

An armed settler accompanied by IDF soldiers tells Palestinians and Israeli civil rights activists that only Jews can stay on privately owned Palestinian land in Area B of the West Bank on the outskirts of the Palestinian town of Tarqumiyah during a confrontation on June 5, 2026 when Israeli civil rights activists were helping Palestinian farmers work their land. (Courtesy)

Dvir Warshavsky, one of the leaders of the Bnei Avraham organization, said that the incident took place last Friday, June 5, on the eastern edge of Tarqumiyah, on land privately owned by residents of the town, and in Area B, where the Palestinian Authority has civil but not security authority.

Warshavsky, together with other Bnei Avraham activists, went to accompany the Tarqumiyah farmers in order to provide them with some form of assistance in the face of the repeated harassment and expulsion efforts when trying to work their land at the hands of settler extremists and IDF regional defense units.

The group succeeded in helping the farmers with their agricultural work for some time before they were told to leave by settlers and the IDF soldiers.

An IDF soldier with a patch featuring a skull and Israeli flag, likely from a regional defense unit, arrived at the site after an hour of work had been done, followed by the armed settler and two other soldiers, and ordered the Palestinians to leave.

“I’m the army, shut up,” the armed settler told one activist.

“Jews are allowed to be here. Arabs have to get out of here; this is a closed military zone,” he continued. He did not have such an order to present, but said that it was being prepared by the local IDF commander.

“This is going to end badly. You Jews can stay here, harvest the wheat, collect the oats, whatever you want. The Arabs aren’t staying here,” he told another activist.

According to Warshavsky, another group of settler extremists then arrived nearby, entered Tarqumiyah and harassed residents there, until Border Police arrived at the scene.

The Border Police then forced the Bnei Avraham activists and the Palestinian farmers to enter a fenced-off area where they remained for several minutes, and then ordered the Jewish extremists to leave the area as well. The Border Police then produced a valid closed military zone order and ordered the activists to leave.

Border Police corral Israeli civil rights activists and Palestinian farmers into a fenced-off area in the West Bank town of Tarqumiyah after extremist settlers arrived in the area, June 5, 2026. (Courtesy)

“What we saw on Friday was a full acknowledgement of the true intent of the illegal settlement farming outpost project, which is the expulsion of the Palestinians from their land,” said Warshavsky.

“We are here to help to return the land that was stolen from Palestinians, and not to allow a situation in which some people can steal land from others without anything happening.”

The regional defense units are comprised of residents of West Bank settlements who were mobilized by the IDF following the October 7 attacks to protect the settlements, but who have been documented carrying out severe violence and harassment against local Palestinian communities.

The armed settler may have been a civilian security coordinator — an individual empowered by a military order to have responsibility for security over a particular settlement, and who enjoys various authorities, including the power to detain and arrest people, and to conduct searches, among other powers.

The IDF did not confirm which personnel were involved in the incident.

Warshavsky said that Tarqumiyah residents from the eastern area of the town had been driven off their land by extremist settlers from a nearby illegal settlement farming outpost shortly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacres, and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Bnei Avraham activists began to accompany the Tarqumiyah farmers when they went out to work their land to afford them some form of protection, although they were also frequently confronted by IDF forces who dispersed them with tear gas and other methods.

According to Warshavsky, the Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry, permitted the farmers to work their land, but he said they are repeatedly driven off by IDF regional defense units.

Over 120 illegal farming outposts have been established by radical settlers in the West Bank since the current government took office in December 2022, according to figures by Peace Now.

The managers and residents of these outposts frequently attack and harass residents and farmers from nearby Palestinian communities to force them off their land and prevent them from conducting agricultural activity on it or from grazing their livestock on pasture land.