Report: Shin Bet chief warned Netanyahu, senior ministers about rise of ‘Jewish terror’ against Palestinians

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sent a grave warning last week to senior officials of the danger of “Jewish terror” in the form of extremist settler violence in the West Bank, according to a television report, after a deadly rampage through a Palestinian village near Nablus last week.

Bar sent the letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, other senior ministers and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, but notably not to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Channel 12 reports.

“I am writing this letter to you with a heavy heart, filled with concern, as a Jew, as an Israeli, and as a member of the defense establishment, about the growing phenomenon of Jewish terror from ‘hilltop youth,'” the report quotes from the letter.

Hilltop youth is a term used for extremist settler activists involved in building illegal outposts in the West Bank and frequently alleged to be involved in violence against Palestinians.

“The ‘hillop youth’ long ago turned into a hotbed of violence against Palestinians,” he writes, while also decrying that such incidents have increased dramatically and that suspects are seldom brought to justice.

Some 100 extremist settlers are believed to have perpetrated the rampage in Jit on August 15, torching at least four homes and six vehicles in the village located just west of Nablus. One Palestinian man was killed and another was wounded by gunfire in the incident.

Bar also comments on the national security minister’s contentious visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last week for Tisha B’Av.

“Continuing in this direction will lead to much bloodshed and will change the State of Israel beyond recognition,” he warns in the letter.

Ben Gvir’s visit to the flashpoint holy site on August 14 drew widespread criticism in Israel and around the world as a provocation liable to set the region aflame.