West Bank Population Value As Appartheid, Former Israeli General Calls PM Netanyahu Failed

Illustration of Israel's border with Palestine in the West Bank. (Wikimedia Commons/Justin McIntosh)

JAKARTA - Former head of the northern front of the Israeli army condemned the absolute apartheid in Israel's occupied West Bank, blaming far-right politicians allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing human rights abuses in the region.

That was said by Major General Amiram Levin, who also serves as Deputy Chief of Mossad, while speaking with Radio Kan Resheet Bet.

Famous for statements inciting Palestinians in the past, Major General Levin furiously told the Israeli government, saying the army was silent about seeing settlers rampant and began to engage in war crimes".

"I don't care about Palestinians, I forgive us. We kill ourselves from within. Aunt (Netanyahu) fails here. She puts criminals and prisoners of military service in important positions that, in civilized countries, should be behind bars," he said, launching The National News August 14.

Major General Levin most likely referred to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Belzel Smotrich.

In 2019, Yitzhak Ilan, former deputy head of Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, said Smotrich had been detained in connection with a "terrorist attack" plan to disrupt Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir has been linked to a terrorist organization designated by the US and Israel, charged by an Israeli court in 2008 on charges of inciting violence and supporting terrorism.

The extremist settlers' violence is known to have escalated in the occupied West Bank this year, fueled by far-right PM Netanyahu's members, including Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who last week sought to issue a decision holding government funding for Israeli Arabs and some Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation.

In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers are accused of doing little or not doing any action against the settlers, in a series of attacks, including the tantrums in Turmus Ayya in June, a Palestinian city north of Ramallah, which killed a settlers, injured many people and caused at least 30 houses to catch fire.

The settlers' violence, including the tantrums in the town of Huwara near Nablus in February, left at least 200 Palestinians injured and six people dead this year.

In some cases, security forces were accused of being involved, for example, shooting dead a Palestinian man in an attack on Turmus Ayya.

General Levin's statement follows the growing number of political statements made by former senior members of the Israeli military and intelligence agencies, directed at PM Netanyahu's administration, although most of them focus on the controversial judicial reshuffle plan of the prime minister.

The protests have rocked Israel for eight months over PM Netanyahu's plans, which critics have called a coup attempt.

Meanwhile, Israel's Northern Command once led by Levin is part of the armed forces responsible for border areas with Lebanon and Syria.