We were driving between Palestinian communities, when suddenly our convoy was stopped by men armed with M4 military-grade rifles. There was nothing special about the incident, and that’s what makes it so disturbing. In the region we visited together with Rep. Khanna, there is not even a pretense of separation between the settlers and the army.
By Nadav Weiman, reposted from Haaretz, July 13, 2026
Last Wednesday, I joined Congressman Ro Khanna on a tour of the occupied West Bank. We drove through the Hebron area, south of Jerusalem, and were discussing the exponential rise in settler violence in that region; then, in the midst of our conversation, something happened that was stronger than any words I could have used to explain the reality on the ground.
Everything we spoke about – the intimidating presence of armed Israeli settlers, the open collaboration of Israeli soldiers with acts of violence and the intentional lack of law enforcement by the police – all of it was unfolding right before our eyes. It was not an exceptional incident in any way. Quite the contrary: it was a disturbingly regular occurrence for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
At first, two men in civilian clothes approached our vehicle. One was carrying an M4 rifle, a military-grade firearm issued to security personnel, not a weapon that an ordinary civilian can simply acquire in Israel. A member of the Congressman’s staff asked: “Are they soldiers or settlers?”
That question has become almost impossible to answer over the past three years. The collaboration between the Israeli army and the most extreme and violent settlers is not a new phenomenon – we at Breaking the Silence have been documenting it for years. It’s an omnipresent characteristic of the occupation. Anyone who has served in the occupied territories knows that settlers are an integral part of the mechanism of control over Palestinians.
But under the current far-right Israeli government, the symbiosis between the settlers and the military has dramatically increased. Since October 7, the IDF has conscripted thousands of settlers, including many with a documented past of violence against Palestinians, into regional defense units operating in the occupied territories.
These units enjoy the weaponry and authority of the military, but their loyalty to the chain of command is questionable, to say the least. They set their own missions, advancing their ultra-nationalist agenda of displacing Palestinians and taking over their lands. Other military forces either do nothing to stop them, or, as has often become the case, assist them in carrying out their plans.
In the region we visited together with Rep. Khanna, there is not even a pretense of separation between the settlers and the army. They are essentially one. This is exactly what the Congressman witnessed as the armed settlers stopped our convoy, with the full authority and backing of the IDF. And what was true for our encounter is true all over the occupied territories today. One example is the military’s active support of illegal settler outposts.
After the incident involving Rep. Khanna made international headlines and exposed the IDF’s complicity in the violence of extremist settlers, the military issued an official response stating that the identity of the “armed man” who stopped our convoy was still being verified.
But how exactly did this unidentified man get an M4 rifle with a silencer? That’s a question the IDF doesn’t want to answer. The statement also claimed that soldiers dispersed the settlers “within a short time” and “did not participate in blocking the road,” blatant lies which, sadly, I have learned to expect when dealing with the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
In reality, the soldiers arrived, joined the settlers, and blocked our vehicle for more than half an hour without saying a single word to us, all while casually smoking with the men who had just threatened us.
All this leads to the most important question: What can be done to change this reality? We can begin by doing what Congressman Khanna just did: touring the West Bank and seeing the occupation with our own eyes. Then, we can speak openly and honestly about what’s happening there, and how it is related to policy decisions made in Jerusalem and Washington.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about this incident in an interview with NBC, and brushed it off by claiming that the problem of settler violence is limited to “[only] 150 juvenile delinquents.” This is a false claim that Netanyahu has been repeating in countless interviews. His lies, however, can no longer conceal the truth that Rep. Khanna saw on the ground and shared with the world.
Nadav Weiman is executive director of Breaking the Silence.
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