In brief
The Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad, a cluster of houses high on a hill in the West Bank, recently welcomed an interview with a resident named Yehuda Shimon, who defended a wave of settler attacks on nearby Palestinian villages following the death of his outpost’s security guard. Shimon alleged the attacks were justified revenge, arguing that one Jewish life equates to millions of Palestinian lives. The incident, which left four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier dead, has intensified scrutiny of the radical rhetoric spreading within outposts and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite official Israeli claims, the United Nations has recorded dozens of Palestinian fatalities attributed to settler violence in the same period, underscoring the human cost of the conflict and the tension between civilian Israeli law and military occupation of the West Bank.
Havat Gilad, a 20‑year‑old outpost underground the occupied West Bank, is surrounded by a cluster of settler houses and sheds. Their structures are clearly visible from nearby Palestinian villages.
In late July, a wave of settler attacks hit local Palestinian communities after a security guard from Havat Gilad was killed in a confrontation in the village of Tal. The incident also left four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier dead, though the exact cause remains disputed.
The BBC was granted rare access to interview Yehuda Shimon, a lawyer who represents Israeli defendants in cases of violence against Palestinians. He expressed that the attacks were "justified as revenge" for the guard’s killing.
"I think now, after they killed one Israeli, we need to kill all the people in Tal and Sarra, even Jit and Farata," Shimon said, naming Palestinian villages the closest to the outpost.
When asked to compare one Jewish life to many Palestinian lives, Shimon’s reply was stark: "No, one Jewish life, it’s 10 million [Palestinians]."
Shimon dismissed international law as irrelevant, citing a biblical mandate that Jews should occupy the West Bank. He criticized the Israeli government and army for not backing Jewish claims strongly enough and for failing to use lethal force sufficiently against Palestinians.
The outpost’s legal status is contentious; the Israeli government had previously indicated it might legalise Havat Gilad, but the lack of formal land approval and the designation of surrounding areas as state land remain sources of dispute.
Human‑rights organisations compare the situation to apartheid, observing that Israelis in the West Bank enjoy civilian law and freedom of movement, while Palestinians are subject to military occupation, checkpoints and military courts. Israel has rejected the term as “absurd.”
Palestinian residents around Havat Gilad report feeling unprotected, citing the absence of Palestinian security forces and the perception that the international community has abandoned them. One resident said: “Europe is busy, America is occupied with Iran, China doesn’t care, Russia is fighting Ukraine, the UN is finished and the Arabs have internal problems. We don’t know what we can do.”
