Israeli general says Israeli settlers' 'terror' threatens Palestinians and creates conflict

Ma'an -- A senior Israeli army commander has warned that unchecked settler "terror" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank threatens to plunge the territory into conflict, reports said Tuesday.

Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrahi said a yeshiva, or religious seminary, in the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, one of the most radical strongholds in the West Bank, should be closed, calling it a source of terror against Palestinians.

"What's happening in the field is terrorism," he told Channel 2, according to the Independent newspaper, and it "needs to be dealt with." The army fears "terrorism against Palestinians is likely to ignite the territories."

The remarks come amid a string of violent events in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A group of Israeli settlers attacked three Palestinian shepherds near Jerusalem on Monday, police said, and on Friday, Yizhar resident set fire to Palestinian land near the village of Burin, south of Nablus.

Two days earlier, a Palestinian teenager sustained bruises after Israeli settlers pelted his car with stones near the site of the former Israeli settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005.

A report by the Palestinian Authority found that settler violence increased "dramatically" in June 2011, documenting 139 attacks in the West Bank and the destruction of over 3,600 olive trees and vineyards.

The strong words from Gen. Mizrahi suggest the military is beginning to recognize a problem.

"The army is very afraid that [action by settlers] at a critical moment could set off a Third Intifada," said Adam Keller, spokesman for human rights body Gush Shalom in an interview with The Independent.

"The fact that the army is nervous is making the settlers more aggressive," he said.