The fact that the IDF needed a Supreme Court order to secure the Tubasi family’s return to their home, after settlers seized it in plain sight, shows just how inept and beholden to settler whims the army really is, according to Israeli media reports.
Reposted from Haaretz, September 30, 2026
About 150 settlers again rioted overnight Monday (September 28) in the village of Jalud while the army was supposed to ensure the safe return of the Tubasi family to their house. Two months ago, settlers took control of the house, and three weeks ago, the High Court of Justice ordered the state to return the family to their home.
The rioters set fire to cars and property, and threw stones. The defense establishment, for its part, was not prepared for the operation, which took place during the Sukkot holiday; only 12 Border Police officers were at the scene to secure it. Haaretz’s Josh Breiner reported Tuesday that the army did not bother to update the Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service about plans to bring the family back, and both bodies were surprised by the decision of Israel Defense Forces’ Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth on this matter. “How did the IDF not understand the magnitude of the mission?” a senior defense official wondered. “The IDF failed miserably.”
The army’s failure to implement the High Court’s decision should not come as a surprise. The fact that the army needed a High Court order to fulfill its role as sovereign in the occupied territories and protect all its residents, including Palestinians, is the real failure. The fact that thugs can take over a private home, in plain sight of the entire world, expel its residents, and flout the law without the army immediately intervening is its failure. The fact that the family members have been exiled from their house for about two months proves that the army never intended to return them in keeping with the law. When the head of the defense system is a regional commander who grew up in the settlements and is obedient to the settlers, it is not surprising that the IDF disregards High Court decisions regarding the settlements.
Throughout the two months the Tubasi family did not live in their house, the army did not muster enough forces to return it to them and keep it secure. If Palestinians were to take over a home in a settlement, the IDF would evict them with massive forces on the same day, including by opening fire and carrying out mass arrests. But when Jewish hooligans act in exactly the same way, the IDF is in no rush.
A chorus of condemnations erupted Tuesday in response to the events. President Isaac Herzog called it “a moral stain,” while Gadi Eisenkot named it “terror.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again claimed that “the handful of rioters does not represent the settlers.” This is the same “handful” that Netanyahu always talks about, occasionally citing a total of 150 throughout the West Bank. But there were about 150 rioters in Jalud alone on Monday. Hundreds and sometimes even thousands of settlers participate in the pogroms, and many thousands more stand behind them.
In any case, it is not the number of settlers that matters. What matters is that they have the power to impose terror on nearly 3 million people in the face of a governing system that has consciously decided not only to let them do it, but also to support them. The fact that the Central Command is unable, or unwilling, to uphold the High Court’s decision and return the house to the family indicates that the IDF has crossed the line and betrayed its role. It’s no longer the Israel Defense Forces, but the Israel Settlers Forces.
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