Netanyahu Orders Troop Pull From Lebanon to Confront West Bank Settler Violence

Netanyahu ordered Israeli forces to "suppress and control violent Jewish extremists" in the West Bank.

“The West Bank map is no longer just a sheet delineating politically contested borders; over six decades it has become a stage for a "spatial engineering" process among the most complex in modern history since 1967”

Al-Jazeera Net

This is the first time Israel has withdrawn forces from an active war front to address settler unrest.

Al-Jazeera Net

About 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem alongside 3.8 million Palestinians.

Israel announced the opening of seven new settlements in the West Bank and Golan Heights.

Settlement expansion has continued under Netanyahu and especially since Trump was elected.

Euronews

The announcement included plans to establish new security zones around the Golan.

The West Bank has undergone a transformation described as spatial engineering.

“Israeli settler attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are 'morally and ethically unacceptable,' the chief of staff of the Israeli army said on Wednesday, March 18”

Le Monde.fr

The settler population numbers more than 780,000 spread across 192 official settlements and more than 350 outposts.

Israel effectively controls about 42% of the West Bank's area.

Violence has surged across the West Bank.

Six Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the end of February.

Al-Jazeera Net

The army chief described settlers as rioters who do not represent the Jewish settlements.