If Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, can find excuses for the hilltop youth’s colonial violence, how much more is the concept of settler-colonial presence as a form of violence normalised? During a meeting called by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir described the hilltop youth as “sweet boys” forced into adulthood through administrative detention. In February this year, the Shin Bet’s Chief, Ronen Bar, blamed setter violence in the Occupied West Bank on the hilltop youth. “The settler community in Judea and Samaria are super normative and law-abiding,” Bar had stated, while acknowledging that “a very small percentage of hilltop youth that are harming the whole settler enterprise.” Ben-Gvir and Bar may be at odds, but not in terms … Continue reading Israel officials promote impunity for all forms of settler-colonial violence