Translated from the Hebrew original
December 4, 2025
To:
Minister of Defense, MK Israel Katz
Re: Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank
Dear Minister,
CIS wishes is deeply alarmed by the serious risks to our national security caused by the violence and terrorism perpetrated by Israeli citizens against West Bank Palestinians.
These acts are being committed by individuals as well as by organized groups. Their intensity and severity keep escalating, and are truly of riot and pogrom proportions.
The IDF and Shin Bet are vigilantly engaged in a determined and successful fight against Palestinian terror, especially Hamas-related. This on-going struggle requires substantial effort and human resources. Indeed, it should be the exclusive focus of our troops. Instead, they are being forced to tend to the challenge of Jewish violence.
By law, the military commander of the West Bank, acting on your behalf, is the sovereign in the territories. And in accordance with government decisions over decades, the Minister of Defense is in charge of the IDF and ‘the territories’ – the West Bank in particular.
Your flagrant impotence in dealing with Jewish violence and terrorism is key to the situation on the ground, as it deteriorates to chaos and towards an all-out war of gratuitous bloodshed.
It is apparent that the intent and purpose of the instigators of this Jewish terrorism is to cause total chaos in the West Bank. These organized acts of violence, in tandem with the policies of Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir (under the auspices of the Prime Minister), that promote lax rule of law, and the acceleration of land seizure and economic sanctions, actually increase the influence and power of Hamas and only expand the circle of Palestinian terrorism. Indeed, these actions and policies are driving a deterioration and slide into an all-out war in the West Bank.
Such a gratuitous war will draw large military forces and the attention of the other security institutions, siphoning off much needed capabilities on the various challenging fronts. This unnecessary war will claim the lives of civilians, soldiers and Palestinian residents. And it is a war that will result in a terrible economic, social, and moral crisis in Israeli society, which is already suffering from destructive polarization and factionalism.
The ensuing chaos will undercut any potential for political solutions and will cause the intensification of Israel’s political-diplomatic isolation, precisely at a time when a significant opening has been made – thanks to President Trump’s leadership – for regional political and security processes and solutions that would greatly enhance Israeli security.
Minister of Defense, Mr. Israel Katz,
You are directly responsible for this nightmarish counterproductive deteriorating situation.
The heads of the different Security organization have already warned of these dangers. It is disingenuous to roll your eyes and claim that this organized terror and institutionalized violence are the marginal acts of ‘stray weeds’, and to ‘dump’ all of the responsibility on the IDF.
Your silence, inaction and failure to institute policies to prevent Jewish violence (such as administrative arrests), are interpreted as support for Jewish terrorism and its perpetrators in the West Bank. In practice, you are helping to instigate deterioration into a comprehensive war in the West Bank, that will only expand the circle of suffering on all sides.
Ignoring this strategic warning is not a matter for another future investigative committee but is an existential matter and must be addressed here and now.
Sincerely,
Major General (Res.) Matan Vilnai
Chairman
