Police probe far-right settler rabbi suspected of inciting attacks on Palestinians

Police detained and questioned a far-right rabbi on suspicion of inciting settler attacks against Palestinians in the northern West Bank, law enforcement announced Wednesday.

Rabbi Menachem Ben Shachar, a prominent settler activist from the Givat Ronen outpost, is suspected of disseminating “incendiary and extremist messages encouraging serious violence against Palestinians,” police said.

He and another suspect were detained early Wednesday morning for interrogation, and were released hours later under restrictive conditions. Police searched his home, seizing several computers in his possession.

Police launched the investigation following a spate of attacks in May on the Palestinian village of Bruqin, which saw settlers torch homes as well as cars, and injure around a dozen residents.

Settlers descended on Bruqin after a Palestinian attacker from the northern West Bank town murdered Tzeela Gez as she was en route with her husband to give birth in the hospital. Her infant son was delivered by emergency C-section, but he died two weeks later.

The joint probe into Ben Shachar and his associate is ongoing, under the direction of the West Bank district police’s investigations and intelligence unit, alongside the Shin Bet.

Recent months have seen widespread settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. Arrests have been rare.

Moshe Polsky, an attorney from the right-wing legal aid group Honenu, is representing both Ben Shachar and the additional suspect, who was not named.

Honenu condemned the arrest, claiming that “someone in the police is undermining the policy of the political leadership” overseeing law enforcement.

The remark seemed to be a veiled appeal to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, an ardent supporter of the settler movement who has vocally discouraged police action against Jewish extremist violence while in office.

Ben Shachar is a well-known figure in the settler movement. He taught at the Homesh yeshiva, which is located in an illegal outpost of the same name.

In March 2023, the rabbi called for the Palestinian town of Huwara to be “wiped out,” describing it as a “village full of terrorists who support terrorism and march with joy after attacks.”

The town had been targeted a month prior by settler extremists in a deadly rampage that left one dead and around a hundred wounded.

Similar to the riots in Bruqin that sparked the investigation, the rampage in Huwara was in retaliation for a deadly shooting attack, in which a Palestinian gunman murdered two Israelis.