“Killing like we haven’t killed since 1967″, leaked comments from the head of the Israeli army in the West Bank have revealed two-tier firing policies and endemic prejudice.

 

Major-general Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, had not known his comments would be leaked when he boasted of the success of Israe l’s policies in the occupied territory according to the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz.

 

"What distinguishes me is that I am constantly dealing with [the Palestinians], and continuously turning villages into arenas of confrontation," he added.

 

Bluth, who was born in a West Bank settlement and educated in a religious military academy in the occupied territory , also defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to fire at unarmed Palestinians .

 

On Palestinians accused by Israel of throwing stones, he said, "This is terrorism… and in 2025 we killed 42 stone-throwers on the roads.”

 

Bluth said the army did not shoot Jewish settler militants for doing the same thing, noting that on one occasion when a settler throwing stones at motorists had been wounded by army gunfire, there was a public “ruckus”.

 

He admitted that Israel was practicing a “two-tier’’, firing policy , whereby Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted while Palestinians carrying out similar acts are fired at , citing domestic repercussions for using lethal force against Israelis.

 

"Soldiers firing at Jews have difficult social repercussions," he said, later admitting, "Yes, there is a certain discrimination."

 

Palestinians are subjected to military law in the West Bank and extended detention without trial, while Israelis are judged by civilian courts.

 

Bluth said such incidents had carried wider societal implications. "Every incident of this kind has very difficult social repercussions. I am not sure we need to reach that point, nor is there a need to reach live fire," he said. "We prefer to resolve this by other means."

 

"If we start now firing at every Israeli stone-thrower at a junction, I am not sure that will be beneficial; in fact, I think it will lead to the exact opposite," he added.

 

“His apartheidist approach, under which the army shoots only Palestinian stone-throwers, not Jewish ones, was justified on the grounds of the ‘sociological consequences’ of shooting at the latter,” Haaretz said in an editorial, asking: “Did he take into account the ‘sociological consequences’ of these ‘lame monuments’ on the Palestinians?”

 

Additionally , Bluth loosened legal constraints on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank by allowing the maiming of Palestinians when caught trying to cross the separation barrier into Israel in search of work.

 

“At the [separation barrier], it is currently permitted to detain a suspect by shooting him at the knee or below to create ‘barrier awareness’,” Bluth said, adding that it served as a deterrent.

 

“There are a lot of ‘limping monuments’ in Palestinian villages of those who tried to [cross the barrier], so there is a price being paid,” he added.

 

As with stone-throwers, justified his rules of engagement on the grounds that each illegal Palestinian worker was a “potential terrorist”.

 

The general also portrayed his action as part of a “survival of the fittest” struggle.

 

He framed the policy as part of efforts to prevent a repeat of the 7 October attack in the West Bank, describing the army's approach as one of "precise aggression".

 

Since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, Israeli settlers have conducted an escalating campaign of violent intimidation of Palestinians in the West Bank with the aim of driving them off their land.

 

In that campaign, they have routinely been abetted by the Israeli army, which is increasingly made up of soldiers and officers drawn from the settlements.

 

Bluth claimed that Israeli forces had killed 1,500 Palestinians over three years, describing them as "militants".

 

"We killed 1,500 terrorists over three years. So why is there no uprising? Why don’t they go out into the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?" he said. "Because 96% of the 1,500 killed were involved in terrorism, and only 4% were not."

 

Bluth further asserted: "Of the 1,500, 70 per cent were carrying firearms.

 

Also, Arabs understand that if someone rises to kill you, you must act first to kill him , this is a rule in the Middle East. Therefore, we are killing as we have not killed since 1967." Bluth said, in reference to the war against Arab states that resulted in the permanent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

 

Bluth also pointed to disparities in administrative detention, noting that thousands of Palestinians are held without trial while Israelis are not.

 

"Do you know how many Arab administrative detainees there are now? More than 4,000. You have no administrative detention for Israelis, but you have 4,000 Palestinian administrative detainees," he said.

 

The controversial practice of administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals indefinitely without charge or trial on undisclosed security grounds, a measure widely criticized by rights groups as lacking due process and used to suppress Palestinian political activity.

 

Bluth had sparked controversy with a warning, saying “it’s almost a miracle that the Palestinians are still indifferent” but added they “won’t remain indifferent indefinitely” and warned of the possibility of a West Bank uprising.