‘Yes it’s discrimination’ Israeli army chief admits in leaked video as his troops gun down Palestinian kids for throwing rocks
Acts of terrorism.
The Israeli army’s top commander in the West Bank has openly admitted his forces are enforcing a two-tier justice system that lets Jewish settlers throw rocks without consequence while Palestinian children are shot dead for the same act. In a leaked video, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth told a closed forum that troops had killed 42 Palestinians last year for throwing stones, a number he called “killing like we haven’t killed since 1967.”
When a Jewish settler was accidentally wounded by army fire during an incident, Bluth said, the public erupted in outrage. “Yes, it involves discrimination,” he acknowledged, according to The Guardian.
The remarks, first reported by Haaretz, have not been denied by Bluth or the Israel Defense Forces. They lay bare the starkly different rules of engagement in the occupied territory. Under military law, Palestinians can be held indefinitely without trial, while Israeli settlers are tried in civilian courts.
Bluth has defended the acts as the “survival of the fittest”
Bluth also revealed that soldiers are now permitted to maim Palestinians attempting to cross the separation barrier into Israel for work, shooting them in the legs to create what he called “limping monuments” as a deterrent. Each injured worker, he claimed, was a “potential terrorist.” His justification for the shootings echoed the biblical adage “if someone comes to kill you, kill them first.”
He framed the policy as a necessary response in a “survival of the fittest” struggle, invoking the 1967 war that cemented Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Since the October 7 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza, settler violence against Palestinians has surged, often with the army’s tacit support. UN figures show 230 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers in 2025 alone.
The general also warned that settler violence – what he explicitly called “Jewish terror” – could trigger a Palestinian uprising if left unchecked. As per Haaretz, in a separate closed meeting, Bluth described extremist settlers, particularly the so-called “Hilltop Youth,” as “anarchic fringe youth” who see Palestinians as subhuman.
“They think it’s possible to burn people alive, to burn houses down with their occupants inside, and unfortunately, they do this frequently,” he said. He recounted an incident where settlers torched IDF identification equipment to avoid being caught while setting fire to Palestinian homes, asking, “Whom exactly were they taking revenge on?”
He warns of an impending explosion in the West Bank
Bluth said that he had warned PM Netanyahu and the security cabinet. “Terror is at its lowest level, but there’s a constant boil and we don’t know where it will spill over,” he said.
He urged the government to adopt a mix of “carrots and sticks” to de-escalate tensions, noting that the Palestinian Authority’s security forces had been receiving only 40% of their salaries for nearly a year due to withheld tax revenues. “There are things that can raise the temperature, such as funds that haven’t been transferred to the Palestinians for a year,” he said.
Bluth called the settlers responsible for the violence “wild people” who should be in prison and lamented the judiciary’s weak response. After settlers burned three Palestinian villages over three nights in retaliation for a settler’s death, only five masked individuals were arrested. A judge sentenced them to three days of house arrest, a ruling Bluth called “a joke.”
“After 72 hours, they were released and attacked Border Police officers,” he said. He also criticized Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision to halt administrative detention orders for Jewish suspects, saying it undermined efforts to curb settler attacks.
His frustration is with the broader culture of violence in Israeli society
“Israel has changed too, and the population is much more violent,” he said. While he placed primary responsibility for addressing West Bank violence on the courts and police, reports suggest the IDF itself has often failed to intervene.
In one incident, soldiers stood by as settlers armed with clubs attacked a Bedouin community near Ramallah. In another, settlers who torched a Palestinian home in Jalud returned the next day and moved freely inside the ruins alongside IDF troops.
Bluth’s comments paint a grim picture of a military deeply entangled with settler extremism. He described how some settlers view themselves as “the heroes of David,” believing all of Israel’s deterrence stems from their actions. “This is delusional,” he said. “They are causing unimaginable damage to Israel and to the Zionist project.”
He also warned that some were exploiting the war with Iran to escalate violence, with fringe elements even attempting to “conquer Area A,” the parts of the West Bank under full Palestinian control. “They’ve decided they are ‘erasing the shame of the Oslo Accords,’” he said. “It’s a disgrace to the Jewish people. I’m quite ashamed of this whole thing.”
Bluth clarified that the IDF’s approach remains uncompromising
He defended the policy of shooting stone-throwers and maiming barrier-crossers, arguing that every Palestinian worker was a potential threat. “There are a lot of ‘limping monuments’ in Palestinian villages of those who tried to cross,” he said, framing the injuries as a necessary cost. His admission of discrimination was matter-of-fact, as if the disparity in treatment were an unavoidable reality rather than a choice.
The leaked remarks have sparked outrage among Palestinian rights groups, who have long accused Israel of operating an apartheid system in the West Bank. Bluth’s own background underscores the deep ties between the military and the settler movement. His warnings suggest even he recognizes the unsustainability of the current approach.
Yet his policies ensure the cycle of violence will continue. For now, the “limping monuments” in Palestinian villages stand as silent testament to a system that treats one group’s lives as expendable and another’s as sacred.
(Featured image: hosnysalah)
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