Israeli PM Netanyahu went on CNN today to explain away settler violence in the occupied West Bank. His claims, against the documented record: 1️⃣ “It’s about 150 or so juvenile delinquents.” The UN has documented more than 1,000 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage this year alone, across 230+ communities, six per day, the highest pace ever recorded. 2️⃣ “They’re not from the settler community.” Amnesty found settlement outposts operate as instruments of a state-backed campaign that has fully or partially displaced 117 Palestinian communities since 2023. US-sanctioned settler Yinon Levi, filmed shooting activist Awda al-Hathaleen dead, founded one. 3️⃣ “We do stop them.” Levi was released the morning after his arrest and got three days of house arrest; a year on, he is still not indicted. Yesh Din has documented for two decades that the vast majority of investigations close without charges. 4️⃣ “Our courts are very lenient. I don’t know why.” Netanyahu’s own government has approved or legalized 103 settlements since 2022, retroactively blessing outposts built through violence, and his national security minister distributed guns to settlers. 5️⃣ “It’s not the government of Israel.” Settlement is a project of the Israeli state. The military backs the attacks on the ground: journalist Jasper Nathaniel, has documented the institutional machinery behind settler violence, and filmed IDF soldiers supporting settlers in their assaults on Palestinians. Asked to commit to look into the killing of Saif Musallet, the Palestinian American beaten to death last year by Jewish settlers: “I’m not sure that. I’ll look into it.”