This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni has said Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “dismantling the State of Israel”, accusing it of allowing armed settler militias, parallel legal systems and indefinite occupation to undermine the basic foundations of statehood. 

In remarks shared on X, Livni wrote in full: “A sovereign state has territory, one law for all, and a monopoly on weapons. Israel has no agreed-upon borders, there is no longer one law and justice for all but a religious system of law and justice in parallel to the state’s laws, and there are armed and violent militias that run rampant as they please. The government of Israel is dismantling the State of Israel.”

The comments by Livni come amid mounting evidence of escalating settler attacks across the occupied West Bank and growing international condemnation of Israel’s system of rule over Palestinians. 

The growing consensus of the global human rights community is that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid.  B’Tselem says Israel operates “a regime of apartheid” across the territory under its control, while Human Rights Watch has said Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

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In recent weeks, illegal Israeli settlers have carried out a series of fresh attacks on Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, amid mounting evidence that the violence is becoming more organised and more brazen. 

Earlier this month, settlers intensified assaults on Palestinian villages and towns while exploiting movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli army, with rights groups and medical teams saying road closures and checkpoints delayed ambulances from reaching the wounded. 

Settler violence has taken the form of coordinated raids on multiple Palestinian areas at once. Settlers have raided Palestinians in 13 locations across the occupied West Bank over two days, setting fire to homes and vehicles, smashing windows, throwing stones at Palestinian cars and beating residents. 

Some of the worst attacks targeted villages near Jenin, Nablus and Salfit, leaving several Palestinians injured and causing widespread property damage. 

More than 1,100 attacks by settlers have been carried in the West Bank this year, including assaults on villages, farmland and Palestinian property, often under the protection of Israeli forces. Nearly 19,000 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers had been recorded since the start of the year, underlining the broader climate of repression facing Palestinians across the country.

BLOG: Torture, genocide and erasure

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

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