An armed settler who claimed to have military authority drove off a group of Israeli civil rights activists and Palestinian farmers from privately owned land in Area B of the West Bank last week, asserting that only Jews could stay and that Arabs had to leave.

“Jews are allowed to be here. Arabs have to get out of here, this is a closed military zone,” the individual, who was masked and armed with an assault rifle, declared to activists from the Bnei Avraham organization and farmers from the town of Tarqumiyah, north-west of Hebron.

The settler was accompanied by three IDF soldiers, all carrying assault rifles, two of whom appeared to be from a regional defense unit — uniformed settlers mobilized by the army who have been implicated in severe violence against Palestinians.

The IDF frequently issues closed military zone orders against Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank for various reasons, although the High Court of Justice ruled in January this year that such orders cannot be issued against civil rights activists unless there is concrete proof that they, and not settler extremists, are likely to disturb public order.

Such orders cannot be issued on the basis of ethnic identity either. The armed settler did not produce a closed military zone order when he first ordered the group to leave, saying merely that it was “on its way.”

The IDF declined to respond to the incident despite repeated questions from The Times of Israel as to the identity of the armed settler, or to say why he had an army-issued assault rifle and why he was claiming to have military authority.

An armed settler accompanied by IDF soldiers tells Palestinians and Israeli civil rights activists that only Jews can stay on privately owned Palestinian land in Area B of the West Bank on the outskirts of the Palestinian town of Tarqumiyah during a confrontation on June 5, 2026 when Israeli civil rights activists were helping Palestinian farmers work their land. (Screenshot composite. Courtesy)

Dvir Warshavsky, one of the leaders of the Bnei Avraham organization, said that the incident took place last........

© The Times of Israel