Amid US scrutiny, Netanyahu asserts ‘handful of kids’ responsible for settler violence

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplays rising settler violence in the West Bank, asserting only “a handful of kids” are responsible for the unrest while insisting that he is “putting a special effort” to stop the phenomenon, as he is interviewed by Fox News while visiting the US.

“When they’re talking about it, they’re talking about a handful of kids,” Netanyahu says, apparently referring to media coverage of the violence. “We actually located it. It’s about 70 kids. They’re not from the West Bank. They’re actually… teenagers who come from broken homes, and they do things like chopping olive trees, and sometimes they try to burn a home. I can’t accept that. That’s vigilanteism. I’m taking that out.”

Asked about apparent disagreement on the matter with US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu denies any significant conflict.

“I think we both want to see a future in which that territory is not used for terrorist attacks,” the premier says. “We’ve done a lot of things in that regard. We also want to build a lot of infrastructure there, both for us and for our Palestinian neighbors. I think there’s a lot of room to talk about it. But I think ultimately, Israel has to have military control over this area.”

Trump and his top aides expressed concern over several Israeli policies in the West Bank during their meetings Monday with Netanyahu, a US official told The Times of Israel, saying they took particular issue with unchecked settler violence, settlement expansion and Israel’s withholding of several billion dollars in Palestinian Authority tax revenues.