On 9 March 2026, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir announced an expansion of the criteria for issuing firearm licenses to include all “Jewish neighborhoods” in occupied Jerusalem, based solely on residency, without requiring military experience or training. The decision allows approximately 300,000 Israeli settlers, including Haredi individuals who have not completed military service, to obtain firearm licenses. Ben-Gvir justified the decision by claiming that carrying firearms “saves lives, especially during war and throughout Ramadan,” asserting a “fundamental right” for Jewish residents of Jerusalem to defend themselves.
The decision to expand firearm licensing for settlers and Jewish residents in occupied Jerusalem came directly in the wake of regional escalation linked to the ongoing war with Iran, at a political and security moment that the Israeli occupation government is exploiting to reproduce the discourse of an “existential threat” and to justify extraordinary measures of a permanent nature. This timing cannot be interpreted as a temporary security measure; rather, it constitutes part of a systematic policy to transform a regional emergency into an internal instrument to entrench colonial control over the occupied territory.
Despite official rhetoric linking the expansion of firearm licenses to a “regional threat,” the facts on the ground reveal a clear disconnect. The decision also includes unqualified “civilians,” outside any formal security framework, fundamentally undermining the claim that the objective is to protect residents. Furthermore, the timing coincided with an unprecedented escalation in settler attacks on Palestinian villages and communities, making the “regional war” narrative a political pretext to arm “civilians” within the context of an ongoing military occupation, thereby transforming weapons from instruments of defense into tools of domination and systematic targeting of Palestinian civilians.
Arming Settlers in the West Bank and the Escalation of Settler Attacks to Accelerate Forcible Displacement
The West Bank has recently witnessed a marked escalation in the policy of arming settlers, which extends beyond the distribution of weapons to include multidimensional armed activities reflecting security and military penetration into Palestinian civilian life. According to official Palestinian data, the total number of incidents carried out by the Israeli military and settlers together in the West Bank in February alone reached 1,965, including attacks on property and farms, raids, and attempts to demolish structures, reflecting an expansion of field violence, including the use of force under the occupation’s protection. Violations are not limited to material transgressions; they include the use of firearms to pursue and shoot at Palestinian civilians, as demonstrated by a wave of armed attacks that resulted in eight Palestinian fatalities within a single week in areas such as Abu Falah in central West Bank, alongside multiple injuries from direct settler gunfire.
In this context, local security units with quasi-military characteristics in settlements have emerged, becoming part of the structured system of organized violence on the ground. These units operate alongside the forcible establishment of new outposts under armed protection and direct targeting of Palestinian farmers and civilians in areas such as southern Nablus and Khirbet Samou’, where civilians were injured, and attacks on homes and vehicles occurred under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
These sequential practices cannot be separated from an official policy within the occupation authorities aimed at privatizing colonial violence, transferring it from the hands of the regular army to armed civilian groups operating in coordination with it, and under its protection. This reinforces a culture of impunity and entrenches a climate in which instruments of force are in the hands of actors outside legal oversight, complicating the legal landscape and deepening violations against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Furthermore, units officially presented as “local guards” are in fact armed formations not subject to any effective legal supervision, operating within occupied territory and targeting Palestinian civilians protected under international humanitarian law. These units use force to impose new settlement realities and prevent Palestinians from accessing their land and resources, effectively functioning as armed civilian militias complementing occupation policy, operating in practical coordination with the Israeli army and police. This entrenches a pattern of systematic extralegal violence and perpetuates impunity for ongoing violations.
Legal Framework
The arming of settlers in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem is subject to rigorous assessment under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which imposes on the occupying state a duty to protect civilians and prevent any unlawful use of force. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the occupying power may not transfer residents or arm civilian groups to enforce control over territory or dismantle the existing population structure, and it bears the responsibility to ensure the safety of civilians and protect them from violence, including by settlers. Articles 27 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention impose strict protection on civilians, prohibiting any attacks on their life or property, and transferring or arming civilians to carry out violent acts constitutes a clear violation.
The Israeli decision issued on 9 March 2026 by Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, expanding firearm licenses to all “Jewish neighborhoods” in Jerusalem, constitutes a manifest breach of these obligations, encompassing unqualified civilians outside any formal security framework and lacking effective legal oversight, transferring instruments of force from the regular army to armed civilian groups. This decision reinforces what can be described as the generalization of organized violence, where weapons shift from individual defense tools to means of imposing settlement realities and exerting demographic and geographic pressures on Palestinian civilians, amounting to the extralegal use of force.
Moreover, the formation of quasi-military local guard units, effectively transformed into armed civilian militias, directly contravenes the principles of state responsibility for the protection of civilians in occupied territories. The use of these units to carry out armed attacks against Palestinians, deny access to land and resources, and impose control by force violates fundamental human rights, including the right to life, property, and the inviolability of the home, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Additionally, linking these policies to a “regional threat” lacks any legal justification. The West Bank and Jerusalem are not direct arenas of conflict with Iran, negating the existence of an actual emergency to justify arming civilians. Consequently, this policy forms part of a systematic strategy to reproduce colonial control through the allocation of civilian violence, while settlers continue to enjoy impunity, thereby reinforcing the systematic nature of the violations and rendering the occupying state directly responsible for all resulting harm.
This assessment is further reinforced by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on the Annexation Wall (2004), in which the Court affirmed Israel’s responsibility for any acts of violence committed by settlers in the occupied territories and concluded that all policies that legalize or facilitate civilian violence against Palestinians constitute a clear violation of international law. This legal assessment must be situated within the broader framework established by the International Court of Justice, which has affirmed that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is not merely regulated by the law of occupation, but is itself unlawful. In its 2024 Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, the ICJ concluded that Israel’s prolonged occupation, annexation measures, and systematic settlement enterprise violate the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and render the occupation illegal in its entirety. Within this context, measures that entrench settler dominance or institutionalize civilian violence cannot be assessed as isolated security policies, but as components of an unlawful regime that must be dismantled.