Netanyahu enables the militia burning the al-Toubasi home

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · September 30, 2026

By dismissing organized settler violence as the work of a few rioters, Benjamin Netanyahu enables a state-backed campaign of displacement that renders the law meaningless for Palestinians.

When the law is a suggestion for the powerful and a cage for the poor, it isn't law. It is a weapon. For the al-Toubasi family, the law was a piece of paper from Israel's High Court. It told them they could go home. But in the West Bank, the only law that matters is the one written in gasoline and stones. Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are not just failing to stop this violence. They are the architects of the impunity that makes it possible. By treating organized land theft as a series of random pranks, Netanyahu is signaling that the state will protect the arsonist, not the homeowner.

The theater of the court order

The tragedy of Mahmoud al-Toubasi is a story of a door that opened and then slammed shut. Mahmoud is 60 years old. His wife, Aida, is 51. Their son, Wael, is 33. After months of harassment, they were forced from their home in Jalud. Then, the High Court stepped in. It ruled the family must be allowed back. The court called the settlers' actions a "completely unacceptable phenomenon."

But a court order is only as strong as the soldier willing to enforce it. On September 29, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and border police escorted the family back. They arrived to find a nightmare. According to the BBC, one home had ripped-up tiles and a smashed toilet full of human waste. Then the settlers arrived. More than 100 of them stormed the village. They used WhatsApp groups to coordinate the attack. They didn't just protest. They set fire to two houses and the family's car.

The IDF was there. They used pepper spray and tear gas. But they did not stop the fire. Mahmoud al-Toubasi told NBC News that the security forces "essentially formed a barrier" to get the family away. He noted that the soldiers "did not take any action against the settlers themselves." This is the theater of the state. The government provides an escort to satisfy a judge, then steps aside to let the militia finish the job.

The lie of the juvenile delinquent

Benjamin Netanyahu wants you to believe this is a police matter, not a policy. He calls the attackers a "handful of rioters." He describes them as "juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number," who occasionally light fires. This is the ablest version of the government's case: that these are fringe elements who do not represent the "law-abiding settler public." He calls on law enforcement to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

The evidence makes this a lie. This was not a random gathering of bored teenagers. Peace Now describes this as a "large and organized Jewish terror militia" that is backed and funded by the government. These settlers operate from outposts that the state has rubber-stamped over the last three years. They don't just "occasionally" light fires; they use them to clear land.

The most damning evidence is the ledger of justice. The human rights group Yesh Din reports that fewer than three per cent of police investigations into settler violence over the last two decades have led to a conviction. When the conviction rate is that low, the "law" is a ghost. It exists in books but never in the streets. It mirrors Settler violence in the West Bank (2023-2024), where the government gave a tacit nod to arson.

The machinery of the Nakba

This is not an isolated clash. It is a mechanism. This pattern is the Nakba. The Nakba is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with ongoing persecution and displacement. In Jalud, the mechanism worked perfectly. First, the settlers harass the family. Second, the family flees. Third, the settlers build an illegal outpost. Fourth, the state legalizes the outpost. Fifth, any attempt to return is met with violence that the state refuses to stop.

The numbers tell the scale of the project. The United Nations states that since 2023, more than 6,500 Palestinians have been displaced due to settler attacks and access restrictions. This is not a "handful" of anything. It is a campaign.

The cost is measured in blood. OCHA reports that Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in the West Bank this year. Settler attacks continue to devastate families and communities.

History predicts that when the state rewards arson with land titles, the displacement becomes permanent. For this to differ, the IDF would have to stop acting as a shield for the rioters. They would have to arrest the coordinators of the WhatsApp groups and restore the al-Toubasi family to their land. But the government has a different plan.

The state is moving toward a reality where High Court orders are simply ignored to avoid settler wrath. We saw this in the Amona outpost crisis of 2017, where the state capitulated to settler resistance by legalizing outposts retroactively. Today, the cowardice is more open. The IDF and border police took three officers injured and a damaged vehicle, and their response was to retreat. They left the al-Toubasi family to live through "other nightmares."

The al-Toubasi family did everything right. They followed the law. They waited for the court. They accepted the military escort. And they still lost everything. This is what happens when a government decides that the rights of a Palestinian family are less valuable than the political support of a militia. Justice would require the immediate arrest of the coordinators, the full restoration of the burned homes, and a total end to the legalization of illegal outposts. Until then, the "law" in the West Bank is just a polite way of managing a theft.

Netanyahu enables the militia burning the al-Toubasi home

The theater of the court order

The lie of the juvenile delinquent

The machinery of the Nakba

Sources