BEHAVIORAL CONFLICTS .......

 

Boussenna Mohamed

  

What Italy has just done to its Muslims changes everything!!!

Giorgia Meloni's Italy is on the brink: the radical law against separatism is shaking the West.

Article: Italy has just made a decision that could well redefine the contours of Western civilization as we know it. What is currently happening in Rome is not simply a new line in the European penal code; it is a political and cultural earthquake whose repercussions are already being felt far beyond the Alps. Under the leadership of Giorgia Meloni, the Italian government has launched an unprecedented legislative offensive aimed at protecting what it calls the national identity and Christian roots of Europe.

A historic turning point for the peninsula

The ruling party, Brothers of Italy, has introduced sweeping legislation banning the wearing of the burqa and niqab in all public spaces nationwide. This measure extends beyond administrative buildings to include schools, shops, offices, and even the streets. Supporters of the law argue that it is a matter of public safety and human dignity, while critics see it as a brutal attack on individual liberties.

The bill also mandates identity checks for anyone wearing clothing that fully covers their face. Italian police now have the authority to stop and document these individuals without prior suspicion. The message from Rome is crystal clear: social integration and respect for common civic norms are no longer negotiable. Violators face fines of up to $3,000, a deterrent amount that underscores the government's determination to enforce this new law.

Giorgia Meloni's vision: Defending Christian identity

At the heart of this transformation is the figure of Giorgia Meloni. The Italian Prime Minister, known for her outspokenness and unabashed nationalism, doesn't mince words. She has repeatedly stated that, in her view, there is a fundamental incompatibility between certain interpretations of Islamic culture and the Christian values ​​that built Europe.

Meloni highlights a particularly sensitive issue: foreign funding. According to Italian authorities, a large number of the country's Islamic cultural centers are financed by nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. For the government, it is unacceptable that foreign governments should be able to shape Italian public life or undermine the country's constitutional values. This law is therefore not simply a matter of clothing or fashion; it is an act of sovereignty in the face of what Meloni calls cultural separatism.

A global fight against "cultural separatism"

Italy's legislative arsenal doesn't stop at the full-face veil. The text proposes a series of measures aimed at dismantling what the government calls "parallel societies." Key points include extremely strict transparency rules for mosque funding, harsher penalties for forced marriages, and criminal consequences for performing virginity tests.

Andrea Delmastro, one of the legislators behind this bill, forcefully summarized the government's position: religious freedom is sacred, but it must be exercised openly and in full respect of the Constitution. This vision places public law and civic norms above private or religious ideologies. This is where the battle line is drawn: the State reaffirms its primacy over all forms of alternative jurisdiction.

Europe facing a civilizational shift

What is happening in Italy is part of a much broader movement across Europe. For decades, the continent has questioned its capacity to absorb divergent cultures and ideologies. France was the first to respond with a firm “no” in 2011 by banning the full-face veil. Belgium, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland followed suit.

Today, Italy is taking a further step by explicitly linking these restrictions to a civilizational defense strategy. Under the Meloni government, migrant arrivals were reduced by nearly half thanks to tough agreements with North African countries. Between January 2023 and July 2024, Italy deported 130 people for reasons of national security and arrested 36 individuals labeled as extremists. Despite the presence of 1.5 million Muslims within its borders, Italy still refuses to officially recognize Islam as a legally protected religion, a strong signal of its desire to maintain a unified national framework.

Conclusion: A model for the West?

The return of religion to the public sphere, but in the form of a protective Christian heritage, is a growing trend. From Viktor Orban's Hungary to Marine Le Pen's France, the idea that European civilization is threatened by an unassimilated foreign influence is becoming a major political driving force.

For observers like Dr. Steve Turley, Italy is the “tip of the spear” of a civilizational populism that seeks to restore beauty, faith, and tradition to the heart of the city. Whether one supports or condemns these measures, one thing is certain: Giorgia Meloni’s Italy has chosen its side. It is betting on strengthened civic unity, uncompromising national sovereignty, and fierce protection of its historical identity. The choice is now clear for the rest of the West: bold action to preserve civilization or hesitation in the face of growing fragmentation. Rome has already made its decision.

A frank and realistic report by this columnist on Facebook describing a long due situation taking place in most European countries and lately in America and Canada, a major problem of assimilation and integration, it's not over yet, but taking shape in many parts of the world.

As always, my many thanks to all.

WEAPONIZING RELIGIONS......

 

by Jonathan Kuttab
Last week, Palestinian Christians following the Eastern Calendar celebrated Christmas. January 6 is recognized by the Palestinian Authority as a national holiday, with government and municipal offices closed for Eastern Christmas, just as they are on December 25 for Western Christmas and major Muslim holidays. This may come as a surprise to many Americans, who are still fed the line that Palestinian Christians are persecuted by the Palestinian Authority and that the dwindling Christian population is shrinking as a result of Islamic extremism rather than the ongoing Israeli occupation.
Netanyahu has also recently announced that Israel needs to be the “defender of Christians” throughout the region and that Israel would be prepared to act militarily to support and defend minorities, especially Christians in Africa and elsewhere. Already, Israel is interfering in Syria, here claiming to support the Druze minority, and it has moved into Somaliland with similar justifications. Now, he is aspiring to become a dominant regional power as a so-called defender of Christians.
All this sounds absolutely bizarre to Palestinians, who know Israel’s long record of harassment towards Christians, their churches, and their holy places. Christian priests in Jerusalem are spat upon and berated by religious Jews on a daily basis. Christian Palestinians face the same enmity, and their property and land is equally coveted by Israel because the state views them in the same light as it views their Muslim compatriots.
This became particularly clear to me this week as I visited the Christian village of Taybeh, in the Ramallah area of the West Bank. The ancient church in that village was attacked by Jewish settlers who also set fire to part of its property. Churches and church institutions in Gaza have been attacked and bombed by the Israeli army, including the third oldest Christian Church in the world, the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, as well as the Arab Al Ahli “Baptist” hospital in Gaza City. Israel is also moving to tax church property in Jerusalem in violation of the centuries old tradition of exempting such properties from taxation, a potential death blow for local Christian institutions.
A recently-leaked secret memorandum from AIPAC reveals that Zionist propagandists, after doing some field research, have decided that the best argument in support of Israel is to attack Islam. While support for Israel is rapidly declining, there still exists a lot of suspicion, ignorance and hatred for Islam and Muslims in the West. Americans, who may not feel much sympathy towards Israel these days, are still vulnerable to ads and arguments stoking fear of Islam and Shari’a law. References to so-called “Judaeo-Christian values” deliberately exclude and cast suspicion on Islam and Muslims as a dangerous or inferior “other,” while positing a unity of purpose between the state of Israel and Christians in the West. Interfaith activities often ignore Islam, seeking to project unity and affinity between Christians and Jews at the expense of Muslims.
It is important to firmly oppose such trends for a number of reasons. For one thing, the Muslim community in America is still very vulnerable, and it does not have access to the solidarity, resources, official backing and acceptance that the Jewish community has achieved after many years of discrimination and marginalization. While anti-Jewish attitudes still persist in some significant portions of the population, it is often quickly exposed and properly confronted. Private and official bodies are constantly on the lookout for anti-Jewish animus. Publications, speeches and statements are assiduously monitored and any hint of perceived anti-Jewish antisemitism is duly denounced and dealt with. This is as it should be. Unfortunately, the fight against such antisemitism has also been effectively weaponized to shield Zionism and Israel from criticism and to stifle any reasonable discussion of Palestine/Israel. Bias against Islam and Muslims, by contrast, is regularly tolerated, at times even celebrated, and hardly results in proper rebuke or serious consequences.
Another reason to oppose such trends is that the core issues between Israel and Palestinians are purely political, involving disputes over land and population. Viewing the situation as a religious conflict between Judaism and Islam (with Christianity weighing in on the side of the Jews, whom they persecuted in the past) is both inaccurate and dangerous. It pits groups against each other, with God supposedly taking sides. It also justifies the most extreme positions, as adherents of each faith feel they are doing God’s will when they oppose their infidel enemies. And with “God on their side,” it is both useless and even “sacrilegious” to give in to others who are considered heathen and infidels. This is true both for Jews and Muslims. Thankfully, since the times of the Crusades, Christians do not raise exclusive claims to the Holy Land in the name of their God. Yet, adherents of all three religions have a religious connection to the Holy Land, with sacred sites, places of worship and important pilgrimage interests in Palestine. This renders them vulnerable to manipulation and persuasion by political (often secular) elements in the name of their respective religions. In this sense, Christian Zionism, which provides a religious cover for pro-Israeli policies as a Christian duty, is as dangerous as Jewish fanaticism or Muslim fundamentalism.
Therefore, Netanyahu’s pronouncement that he sees Israel as the “defender of Christians” in the region is nothing more than a cynical ruse that should fool no one. Ask the Christians of Palestine how they feel about Netanyahu, Israel, and Zionism first.
And while you are at it, ask why despite repeated efforts, the Israeli prison services are refusing to allow a Christian Palestinian prisoner with whom we are in contact, a Catholic, to have a Bible with or have a priest visit him and administer the sacraments. The Israeli prison authorities state that such religious “privileges” could be given to regular criminals but not to so-called “security detainees.” 
The unspoken truth is that many, particularly religious Israelis have more animosity towards Christians than even towards Muslims. This may be understandable in light of their bitter historic experiences with anti Jewish bigotry in the Christian West. Yet these attitudes are never admitted publicly in English, or in the West. It is more politically expedient to garner support for Israel by promoting a Jewish-Christian alliance against Muslims and Islam. This is the cynical truth behind Netanyahu’s proclamation that he is a defender of Christians.

Jonathan Kuttab for: 
Friends of Sabeel North America · PO Box 3192, Greenwood Village, CO 80155, United States.

A very good report and analysis of an ongoing very dangerous situation, it's been in the making for many decades now, and nowadays being used to its full extend, transforming the colonial acquisition of Palestine and the following transfer and elimination of the indigenous population into a religious pseudo war, a dirty political game engulfing the area and the entire world. 
Mr. Kuttab is an inspired spokes-person for this Christian Palestinian/American organization, I have proudly used some of his words before on our blog, inspired words of courageous truth.
As always, my many thanks to all.    

AMERICAN YEAR 2026 AND BEYOND.......

 

Every single person in the United States, from those who’ve been most harmed to those who’ve been most privileged, would be better off if we had a normal government that put even a moderate effort into universally improving everyone’s lives. If we had a government that took trillions of dollars away from the war machine and the untaxed oligarchs and provided as a matter of basic rights for all

• economic welfare,
• education, preschool through college,
• healthcare,
• a clean and sustainable environment, and
• public transit,

then nobody would ever be denied an education or a job for any reason of hateful idiocy. Why should they be when we’re absolutely rolling in wealth? We could obviously do a much better job of fighting over the crumbs we’ve got, with more context and nuance, but why should we, and how dare we? We need to be putting everything we’ve got into trying to preserve a habitable planet for our children, not fighting over crumbs.

That perfectly true statement is almost meaningless to someone who’s been wrongly imprisoned or denied housing or traumatized by racist police or prevented by cost from providing healthcare for a loved one. Those fortunate enough to not find the preservation of the environment, or the abolition of war, or the taxing of billionaires meaningless need, I think, to work at understanding how badly we are divided and conquered. A huge segment of the U.S. population is being trained to support racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all varieties of bigotry, while another huge segment of the population seems to think it would be joining in the same hideous beliefs if it were to admit that white men have ever had anything unfair done to them or grown their bitterness in any sort of realworld soil.

Young white U.S. male support for fascism is not excusable, sensible . . . or unpredictable. Discrimination against young white males that predictably leads to fascism is not a justification for, or the equivalent of, anything. Nor is it imaginary. In the United States we have an enduring legacy of slavery and white supremacy, persistent racist police and vigilante killings, a rising tide of traditional bigotry, and also discrimination against white men. Millions of words would never suffice to detail the full complexity of the mess we’re in or to properly rank and compare the vast variety of injustices. No solution other than deeply addressing each injustice, and not even that, would satisfy all.

But we would care less about the distribution of the crumbs if we were to take the whole loaf of bread away from sociopathic billionaires and weapons dealers.

Dumping so much of our wealth into the war machine is key to generating the xenophobia and nationalism that allow us to think in terms of a struggle for crumbs internationally. But we don’t need to accept those terms either. The world has plenty of wealth for all. That indisputable fact is also very hard to grasp through the flood of nationalistic propaganda from all sides and in the face of extreme inequality nearby.

We’re not helped by corporate media, with its normalization of war and corruption, and its solemn debates over how Democrats should rebrand themselves in order to better pretend to give a damn. I think Zohran Mamdani’s dad had a good point when he said that his son was elected mayor of New York because he promised to actually improve people’s lives and because he refused to support a genocide — which allowed people to know he was an honest person who really meant that he would work to improve people’s lives. That combination is almost unheard of in Washington D.C.; and almost unmentionable is the more direct connection between ending wars and improving lives. Unless we end the wars, we will not be able to improve the lives of the people being killed or of the people paying for the killing.

Here’s to a strategic new year, moving the money from war to peace, Medicare for all, green energy, free college, fast rail, guaranteed basic income, and ending fascism by improving the lives of every single person.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 26, 2025
https://worldbeyondwar.org/to-a-2026-of-not-fighting-over-crumbs/

An excellent reflection of the American mood and actual life, got it by email, and forwarding it through our blog to my good readers, David Swanson is an inspired fellow and very realistic and factual analyst, I've had him before on the blog, and honored to do so.

As always, my many thanks to all. 

INTRIGUING AND PUZZLING QUESTIONS ......

 

I asked the artificial intelligence:
How can it be explained that the US Delta Force was able to kidnap a head of state from his residence, surrounded by his army and guards, and was unable to do the same in Gaza against the resistance leaders for two years during the war of extermination on Gaza?
The answer was:
This comparison highlights one of the most complex military realities of the modern era. How could a force that breached the heavily fortified Miraflores Palace in Caracas and arrested the president (Maduro) in minutes fail to achieve a similar objective in a narrow alley in Gaza over the course of two years?
Military analysts have identified several reasons why "Gaza" remains an enigma that has baffled "Delta Force" and its elite counterparts:
1. Intelligence: "Penetrated Environment" vs. "Immune Environment"
In Venezuela: The success of today's operation (January 3, 2026) would not have been possible without "treason from within." Regular armies and traditional political institutions often suffer from "erosion of loyalty" as a result of economic sanctions or American promises. Washington had Maduro's bedroom coordinates in real time.
In Gaza, the resistance relies on a "cluster cell" system where cells are unaware of each other. Information there doesn't flow through traceable phones or the internet, but rather through human couriers and rudimentary underground intranets. This has made Gaza an intelligence "black box" for the Americans, with no single "center of gravity" that can be penetrated.
2. Topography: "Palaces" versus "Metro"
Caracas: No matter how fortified the presidential palaces may be, they remain targets above ground, easily scanned by thermal imaging and satellite imagery. Today's arrest was a "surgical operation" that relied on technological superiority in an exposed urban environment.
Gaza: The battle is being waged in a "third dimension" (underground). The tunnel network, dubbed the "Gaza Metro," negates the superiority of air power and drones. Delta Force understands that entering a tunnel is "military suicide" because the rules there do not follow traditional military logic; rather, they are tightly controlled death traps that give the attacker no chance to maneuver.
3. Doctrine: "Function" versus "Martyrdom"
* Guards in Venezuela: Maduro's guards (despite their high level of training) are ultimately employees. Faced with overwhelming American bombing and a full-scale invasion, many might choose to survive or surrender.
* Security in Gaza: Resistance leaders are surrounded by groups that possess a "martyrdom doctrine." In the confrontations of 2024 and 2025, military reports (such as those of retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor) documented that American and Israeli special forces suffered heavy losses when attempting to carry out reconnaissance or rescue operations, because the Palestinian fighter does not retreat, but fights to the last bullet, making the idea of "kidnapping and returning safely" technically impossible.
4. The difference between a "state" and a "non-state"
The United States is adept at "decapitating the state"; the state has a structure, if the president falls, the system falls.
As for the resistance in Gaza, it is a decentralized system. Kidnapping or even assassinating a leader does not end the battle; rather, it may intensify it. This structural failure to identify a "deadly target" is what has turned Gaza into a black hole, draining American military budgets exceeding $22 billion without achieving a single "victory" comparable to what Trump achieved today in Venezuela.
Summary:
Washington succeeded in Venezuela because it confronted a "regime," and failed in Gaza because it faced a "resistance movement" deeply rooted in the land and its aspirations. Delta's success today is a show of force against the weak and vulnerable, while its failure in Gaza is a testament to the impotence of technology in the face of unwavering human will and resilience.

A funny little made up article involving AI, a feature of our actual times, but the question is a good one and legitimate, at least in its first section about how did the American special troops get to Maduro and his wife, get them out , and later fly them out of the country without any serious resistance  from the venezuelan army or presidential guards, or the man himself, even after a few months of war warning.... I cannot but look at similarities between this smooth affair and the as smooth ousting and fleeing Assad of Syria a year ago, are the same minds and people behind both adventures, or did we just witness power kidnapping the law !!! It is not just thought-provoking it is a damn ugly and dangerous situation. 

As always my many thanks to all.  

DIABOLICAL STRATEGIES........

 

Very important
To arrive late
Better than never arriving at all

Live news from Tehran on television channels around the world is as follows:
All former presidents of the Republic of Iran for more than forty years and since
During Khomeini's era, all national reformist figures spoke out strongly for the first time, especially the current new president of Iran.
They have all started speaking out against the Supreme Leader's regime and the hardline Islamist conservatives, and they consider Russia, America, and the West to be conspiring against Iran, etc.
Woooooo
This means that the Persian Republic of the Mullahs
The spirits began to flutter within it.
And her heart began to beat again.
But this time, for a complete change
The current path and all the money spent on adventures throughout the region have ended in failure, and Iran today, after more than 40 years of isolation and self-defense, has lost its loyal allies.
Loss of money and the ability to sell oil due to sanctions, etc.
Therefore
Its reformist, moderate figures began with former presidents and current and former political figures.
To dare to criticize the existing blind authority
And so her spirit and soul began to flutter
After the losses, destruction, and missed opportunities

What a disgrace that the Persian mullah state, as the possessor of the history and geography of the empire
The great Shah Reza Pahlavi and later the Islamic Republic turned it into two contradictory faces, both of which were bitter.
What a tragedy that great nations have been lost because of some rulers, some adventurers, and some who unwittingly fall under the spell and sorcery of Zionism, used for over forty years as grave-digging machines for the diggers themselves and for those they considered their enemies. Their actions and projects remain a foolish adventure at the end of those forty years, even if they achieved some success, because, unfortunately, they managed to destroy and devour all their neighbors.
Like wildfire... and just as Zionism has always dreamed of destroying all the Arab countries of the Fertile Crescent and the countries between the Euphrates and the Nile, and controlling them without losses to its army and security apparatus, by exporting the Shiite Khomeini revolution and its political Islam as a diabolical plan.
Over the course of 40 years, this Khomeini revolution succeeded in destroying both stone and people, spreading and achieving resounding success like wildfire over the course of more than forty years.
When Zionism decided that the mission of the Khomeini revolution had ended, and indeed must be stopped immediately after it crossed the agreed-upon red lines—not only with nuclear weapons but also with long-range missiles, and so on—
Zionism decided to stop and punish her, as it had done previously with some leaders of the Arab coup states, and ultimately failed miserably, a failure that began to appear publicly and to the struggling Persian people as a hope, a waste of time, a waste of opportunities, and a squandering of wealth.
With a complete loss of reason, logic, wisdom, culture, morals, etc.

The current Iranian president stated on international television the day before yesterday:
Why do we have oil and gas?
Our people are hungry
Turkey and others have neither oil nor gas.
But Türkiye earns much more from our oil.
By tourism revenue alone
He also mentioned the names of other countries whose economies are superior to Iran.

Rapid changes will occur in the Persian mullah state and its extremist Islamic political system.

There are groups that will be upset and cry for the sake of the Persian mullahs' state, which they used to destroy other groups.
The enemy of my enemy becomes my friend.
Because we hate the same ingredient
How fortunate Zionism is to have such neighbors, whose members are tearing each other apart.

I heard someone ask Netanyahu on a television station several years ago
What is your opinion of Bashar al-Assad?
He literally said:
A criminal who kills his own people
But we need such presidents
The same applies to the region; they kill those who wish to kill us.
And those who want to throw us into the sea

It means we build on hatred.

Watch the pictures on televisions
They convey direct criticisms and conflicts that have become public and are very new.
From the top of the ruling, reformist, centrist class, in conflict with the rule of the conservative mullahs behind the controlling ayatollah In Iran, which is a completely failed governing regime, despite appearances that appeal to some groups in Arab countries.

As received originally in Arabic, I'm not sure who's the writer or if the article was ever published, a bit chaotic and not very clear as to what exact message it portrays, but sure enough it gives an idea of the situation around the mentioned area.

THEOCRACY.......

 

- The Indians have been waiting for Kalki for 3700 years.

Zoroastrianism has been waiting for Sushant for approximately 3000 years.

- Buddhists have been waiting for Maitreya for 2600 years.

- The Jews have been waiting for the Messiah (Mashiach) for 2500 years.

Christians have been waiting for Jesus ( Son of God) for 2000 years.

- Taoists have been waiting for Li Hong for almost 2000 years.

Sunnis have been waiting for the Prophet Jesus for 1400 years.

- Shiites have been waiting for the Mahdi for 1080 years.

The Druze have been waiting for Hamza bin Ali for 1000 years.

- Baha'is have been waiting for the next divine manifestation for approximately 150 years.

- Rastafarians have been waiting for Haile Selassie's return for almost 50 years.

Most religions embrace the idea of a "savior" and say that the world will remain full of evil until this or that savior comes and fills it with goodness and righteousness.

Perhaps our problem on this planet is that people always expect someone else to come and solve their problems instead of doing it themselves.

There is no Batman, Spiderman, Superman, or savior... The idea is a numbing injection for the people so they will be submissive, patient and wait for the appearance of that superhero who will deliver us from humiliation and avenge injustice and tyranny... The savior is you, me, and everyone, not a specific person, not a divine representative.  You have been guided, you have opened your eyes, you have awakened to the truth, so you are guided and you guide others...

Nice few words, explaining how all religions of our world replicate each other and use the same tactics and methods to win adherents, brain wash and indoctrinate them and fortify themselves. Religions have been proven as the most successful governing systems and methods among all reigning political regimes, and they continue to be so, only weakened by interfaith collisions and religious wars. 

My profound many thanks to all.   

How Israel Organizes and Arms Settler Militias to Terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank

 

What often appears as sporadic settler violence is in fact an organized system with an official structure fully operating as intended.

Story by David Schutz

IBSIQ, WEST BANK—On July 20, around ten masked men raided the Palestinian hamlet of Ibsiq in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. They arrived in a two car convoy, dressed in Israeli military-issue fatigues, and carried assault rifles fitted with green laser pointers.

While their vehicles blocked the road, they stormed into a cluster of homes. At gunpoint, they forced a Palestinian family to their knees and warned them they had 48 hours to evacuate Area C and go to Area B—referring to technical designations of control in the West Bank under the Oslo Accords. Area C is under full Israeli control and Area B is technically under Palestinian civil administration but shares security control with Israel. The masked men said they would “return and burn the community down,” if the family did not evacuate to Area B.

I had been staying with an elderly Palestinian couple for five days in Ibsiq to document settler violence amid rising threats against the community. As the men approached, I asked one of them who he was. They looked like soldiers, but the vehicles in which they arrived had yellow civilian license plates. These masked assailants were members of the hagmar— settler reservist militias formally attached to the Israeli army and tasked with “security” in West Bank settlements.

The men dragged me behind a fence where four of them beat me until I required hospitalization. They stole the phone of an International Solidarity Mission activist who tried to record the attack.

My host, Abu Safi, who was 84, had little choice but to leave his home after that raid by the hagmar. The family packed up their belongings accumulated over decades in the house and moved to a nearby location in Area B. Abu Safi died of a heart attack soon afterwards.

The raid on Ibsiq, whose Palestinian residents have since all fled the depopulated hamlet, offers a glimpse into an essential part of how Israel rules the West Bank.

In parallel with Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza that began in October 2023, Israeli violence from settlers and soldiers in the West Bank escalated to record levels. About 3,000 settler-related attacks causing Palestinian casualties or property damage were recorded between October 2023 and mid-2025, with more than 1,000 of them in the first 8 months of 2025, and 264 incidents in October 2025 alone—the highest monthly total since the UN began monitoring in 2006.

Over the past two years, settlers have increasingly been “going into houses, holding people at gunpoint, and giving them 24 hours to leave, and many have…It happened in Khirbet al-Maktal, Umm Salam, Razeem, and elsewhere,” Nasser Nawaja, a field researcher with Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, told Drop Site News. “We file complaints, but many times the authorities tell us the perpetrators were acting outside their capacity as soldiers, so we’re referred to the police,” Nawaja added. “Then the police say it’s a military matter. We end up in a situation where no one investigates.”

An Integrated Web of Civilians and Soldiers

Settler violence against Palestinians often appears sporadic, but it is an official government system with an organized structure operating as intended.

Since 1967, Israel has ruled occupied Palestinian territories through dual structures—military occupation and civilian settlements—each reinforcing the other while mutually devolving responsibility.

At the heart of this arrangement lies a legal device: regional settlement councils, chartered under the 1964 Municipalities Ordinance as standard Israeli municipalities, yet which operate in occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli jurisdiction rests on military orders and the West Bank Emergency Regulations, which extend most aspects of Israeli law in personam to settlers but not to the land itself. Territorial authority is supplied by the Israeli military, making the army the de facto sovereign.

Within this framework, the state delegates enforcement to settlers. Each settlement appoints a ravshatz, or a civilian security coordinator, paid by the Defense Ministry and authorized by the military to command a plain clothes rapid-response squad, or kitat konenut, of 20 to 40 volunteers within the settlement boundary. Weapons are issued from the Defense Ministry’s Department for Settlement Security; additional arms also flow from the National Security Ministry.

Inside Israel proper, these squads fall under police authority. Beyond it, across the military’s sector that covers rural border areas and all West Bank settlements, the ravshatz usually operates through a local security officer, or kabat, who is appointed by the settlement council to coordinate with the army.

Parallel to the ravshatz are the Hagmar Territorial Defense brigades: a reserve network integrating each settlement into a military grid broken out into districts, blocs, and areas. At the two top levels—district and bloc—the hagmar report to the regional hagmar command of the IDF. At the lowest level, the area hagmar corresponds to a single settlement. Each settlement coordinates with its area hagmar through its appointed kabat.

The hagmar are issued uniforms by the IDF, while the kitot konenut are not. The distinction between the kitot konenut and the area hagmar is merely a technical one, with the same settlers often serving in both units.

In short, the settlement appoints a security coordinator who essentially commands his own volunteer militia that is armed and funded by the state. Those same settler volunteers also often serve in uniformed army reservist militias under the control of the military that coordinates with their settlement. The volunteer militias, the reservist militias, and the military itself all work together to attack and terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank.

Graphic credit: Meghnad Bose

Although wartime command is meant to shift from local coordinators to the army, the West Bank has never officially been declared a war zone. It remains under what the military calls “ongoing routine security,” a permanent state of civilian control by armed settlers under military cover.

“On paper, the weapons are checked in and out by the ravshatz, but in reality, they almost never come back,” said an Israeli solidarity activist who monitors settler violence in the South Hebron Hills, and who spoke to Drop Site on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “In some councils, the armory rules are strict; in others, people just keep the guns at home. It depends on the local kabat and how much the army wants to look the other way.”

While the ravshatz and the settlement’s kitat konenut are technically limited to operating within their settlement, military auxiliaries like hagmar, operating in theory at broader territorial echelons, are not.

“The result is that we have settlers operating as the military without regulation,” Roni Peli, of Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, told Drop Site.

Forced Evictions

This system was on full display in mid-October on the outskirts of Al-Mufaqara, a hamlet in Masafer Yatta. Armed settlers broke into a Palestinian family’s cave-home, forcibly expelled them, and moved in—threatening to shoot anyone who approached. I arrived a few hours later to find the family and several Israeli solidarity activists outside waiting for the police.

“When the Palestinians tried to stop them, a group of armed men arrived, some in uniform, some not, including Binyamin Zarbiv, the ravshatz from Ma’on,” an Israeli activist who witnessed the incident told Drop Site, pointing to the settlement some 200 meters away. They also spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “They aimed their rifles at the Palestinians and at us, while the settlers carried their belongings inside.”

As we waited, an armed man in a ragtag uniform, identified by the activist as one of those who had arrived earlier, demanded my ID. He claimed to be representing Hagmar Har Hevron, though no such Israeli military unit officially exists, and identified himself as a member of three bodies: Ma’on’s rapid-response squad, the area hagmar unit, and a so-called farm patrol. He refused to say which group had sent him.

“The settler who broke in called the ravshatz on his phone,” the activist said. “That’s how it usually happens. The ravshatz makes a few calls, and within minutes they start showing up—half in uniform, half not—all with state-issued rifles.”

The man told me that he would be collecting a full day’s pay for his work, and acknowledged that he could do so whenever he wanted. He claimed his rifle came “from the army,” adding that he had received it “from the base,” but when pressed, he clarified that the “base” was the settlement itself, where no army base exists.

When the Israeli Civil Administration and police finally arrived, accompanied by army soldiers, they declined to review documents proving Palestinian ownership and left the militia in control of the site.

A few kilometers away in Susya, footage from August 24 shows a group of armed men invading the small community, some in fatigues, others in civilian clothes. One of them assaulted a Palestinian resident who was later hospitalized with a severe concussion.

The head of the Susya village council, Jihad Nawaja, said he recognized the attackers immediately. “I’ve known this man for 15 years,” Nawaja told Drop Site, pointing to an armed settler wearing civilian clothing. “The one who beat the Palestinian was his son. They came with armed men from Susya, in uniform, to tell us to evacuate. ‘Leave and move to Hebron,’ they said. There was no other reason for them to come that night.”

Nawaja’s brother, B’Tselem researcher Nasser Nawaja, who is also a resident of Susya, said armed groups of organized settlers frequently also detain Palestinians. They “kidnap people often … anyone who tries to resist eviction. They take him, warn him not to do it again, and release him later,” he said. “I once saw them during an attack near Susya. Settlers were escaping from the police, and one of these men helped drive them away.”

In a recurring pattern, settlers raid in broad daylight and, hours later, the same men reappear in uniform to enforce closures and secure the ground they seized.

“They also actively intercept the army’s radio frequency, to listen in on coordinations with the Palestinians. Once we had coordination for plowing, from four to eight o’clock… they found out and made sure it stopped,” Nawaja added.

Rights groups report that complaints about organized violence by armed settlers routinely bounce between various jurisdictions of Israeli authorities. Police classify suspects as “military auxiliaries” and pass the files to the army; the army returns them as “civilian” cases; civilian authorities cite military jurisdiction, and the investigations close for “lack of evidence.”

A Private Army

Before October 7, 2023, Israel maintained about 450 rapid response squads, according to a 2024 report by the Knesset Research and Information Center (KRIC)—the non-partisan research arm of the Israeli parliament. Roughly 390 of the kitot konenut operated under army supervision in West Bank settlements, while the border police (a police paramilitary unit that operates on both sides of the green line) oversaw 50 and the police oversaw fewer than ten.

The report found that the division of control between government bodies over these units rests on a 1974 government decision that was never published and is missing from the state archives. Military Order 432 of 1971, which regulates kitot konenut in the West Bank, and related directives on open fire and emergency mobilization also remain classified.

In the report, researchers described sweeping non-cooperation from the Israel police, Defense Ministry, and IDF—none of which provided data on the squads’ authority, arming, or oversight. The KRIC noted that its report relied on partial replies and public sources, as “no response was received from the bodies involved.”

Following October 7, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced more than 700 new kitot konenut, expanding the police-run network, while the army’s share remained largely unchanged. The new units were incorporated under the border police, the only way Ben-Gvir could get a mandate to operate outside the green line. By early 2024, the government listed 906 active units, with a target of 1,086 by year’s end. By late October 2025, 1,052 kitot konenut units were active.

In October 2023, Ben-Gvir’s ministry also began distributing around 10,000 newly purchased assault rifles to kitot konenut and loosened gun-ownership eligibility, while the Defense Ministry supplied training, ammunition, and armory infrastructure. By November 2025, Ben-Gvir’s office said roughly 230,000 gun licenses had been issued over the past two years. Meanwhile, the National Missions Ministry funded vehicles, drones, and surveillance systems; regional councils added weapons and vehicles through private and foreign donors, including U.S.-Jewish federations that gifted sniper rifles to kitot konenut under campaigns like “Friends of Samaria.”

The KRIC noted that much of this equipment was distributed through ravshatz-operated armories, bypassing Israeli military depots. Earlier in 2023, the government created the Mishmar Leumi (National Guard), a Border Police reserve under Ben-Gvir, meant to absorb local militias and volunteer frameworks. Activated after October 7, it became a vehicle for mobilizing and reinforcing kitot konenut, with recruitment tracks allowing civilians to join armed policing roles outside the traditional Magav or IDF pathways. Formally under the police commissioner, its control can shift to the minister of national security in emergencies.Leading critics call it Ben-Gvir’s “private army.”

Simultaneously, the army expanded hagmar battalions, adding about 5,500 reservists for a total of roughly 8,000, divided between regional companies and settlement-level auxiliaries known as bnei hayishuv (“sons of the town”).

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s new Settlements Administration inside the Defense Ministry absorbed powers from the Civil Administration, giving his office direct control over civilian-security budgets: armories, budget lines, weapons requests, and patrol mandates. Under this structure, new siyur havot (“farm patrols”) emerged to police land outside settlement boundaries, funded from the same Defense Ministry budgets as the kitot konenut.

By May 2024, when the army began reducing hagmar deployments, a parallel militia network aligned to Ben-Gvir’s National Guard and Smotrich’s policy priorities was already firmly entrenched. The military is now considering further troop reductions in the West Bank, transferring security responsibilities to “local elements,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

On their websites, West Bank regional councils describe their roles in deliberately opaque terms: the South Hebron Hills Council boasts of “creating and maintaining local security elements”; the Jordan Valley Council pledges to “define security components in conjunction with security forces”; and the Binyamin Council vows to “improve and maintain local security components.”

“They don’t distinguish even between the hagmar and the rapid-response squads, everyone’s in uniform now,” a resident from the South Hebron Hills told Drop Site on condition of anonymity. “I know many of them by name. Some even have criminal records. Now they’ve been given uniforms.”

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.

A detailed full report by this courageous reporter, directly from the occupied West Bank, of the situation there, all after the horrific massacres of Gaza, and the continuous bombardment and partial occupation of Lebanon and Syria. All under the eyes of the world, the international media and the UN. Still no one says anything, on the contrary some are directly complicit of this modern times colonialism, genocide and full transfer of an entire population. Only history will witness and judge these barbaric acts. I copied it from Drop Site News, for the understanding of our good readers.

   As always, my many thanks to all .