How many Minutes Does It Take to Burn a Palestinian Village Down?

 

Haaretz Editorial

12:08 AM • February 04 2026 IST

How long does it take to burn down a Bedouin settlement in the West Bank? Four minutes. That is all that was needed for a group of about 20 attackers to go between buildings, systematically torch them and try to trap a couple inside their burning home and then beat them when they succeeded in escaping.

What happened in Mukhmas is not unusual. Three times already, settlers have come to the Bedouin community at night and started fires. The attack on Mukhmas is part of an ongoing wave of Jewish terror in the West Bank that is characterized by an especially dangerous mix of overt and unrestrained violence, open acknowledgement of responsibility and even bragging, and an almost complete lack of enforcement.

The terrorist cocktail of the hilltop rioters includes burning homes, live gunfire, nighttime pogroms and bodily harm to Palestinians and Israeli activists. Shockingly, the Palestinian documentation of the attacks are used by the rioters to brag about their actions, but they are never used by the authorities to bring them to justice. Because how can you fight Jewish terror if the consensus of the extreme right-wing government is that there is no such thing as Jewish terrorism?

The lack of enforcement cannot be overstated. The authorities have the means to prevent Jewish terrorism. The names of many of the outposts are not a closely guarded secret whispered among terrorists living under the radar. Absolutely not. Today's terrorists have Instagram. Groups like Anash and The Hilltop News post videos, celebratory messages and songs praising the burning, slaughter, and so on. Villages adjacent to violent settlers outposts, first and foremost Kol Mevaser, star in "the struggle against the Arab enemy" lists, receive birthday greetings and enthusiastic coverage. Meanwhile, no one is anxious to make arrests, let alone file indictments.

The army, the police and Shin Bet security service have no excuse. The security establishment knows which are the most violent outposts, the bastions of Jewish terrorism. It knows who inhabits them and which groups celebrate their terrorist activities. "All of the violent settlers could be arrested in a single day, but they don't want to," said one Mukhmas resident.

Israeli soldiers take position during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the West Bank, January. Credit: Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

Enforcement is often directed at those who try to protect the victims – human rights activists, Palestinians clinging to their land – while the hilltop rioters act almost unhindered. The pattern is all too familiar: An outpost is evacuated without any arrests, its residents soon return and a wave of violent revenge immediately follows. Sometimes the acts of violence are carried out under the protection of security forces.

This is not a "gang of children" or "at-risk youth." It is organized violence involving large numbers of people operating in the open with the understanding that it will not be punished. Four minutes. That's all it takes to destroy the entire fabric of life in the territories. But the lives of Palestinians in the territories are simply of no concern to Israelis.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.