Havat Gilad resident in the headlines of the BBC: "An Israeli murdered? Kill all the Palestinians in 4 villages"
"The life of one Jew is worth 10 million Palestinians," said Shimon Yehuda, who called for the killing of all residents of Tel, Al-Sarra, Jit, and Far'ata after a weapon was snatched during a hike. When confronted with the racism in his words, he replied: "I know. But God chose us."
"After they killed one Israeli, we should kill all the residents in the villages of Tel, Al-Sarra, Jit, and Far'ata." This was stated by Shimon Yehuda, a resident of Havat Gilad and a lawyer for the "Honenu" organization, to the BBC in a report published on Saturday. The report addressed the deadly incident in the village of Tel last Friday and the retaliatory attacks by settlers on Palestinian villages.
When correspondent Lucy Williamson told him that this was a comparison of the life of one Jew to the lives of thousands of Palestinians, he corrected her:
"No. Millions. The life of one Jew – that is ten million Palestinians."
When she told him that this was a racist statement, he replied: "Yes, I know. But that is the truth, because God chose us, and that is why you are jealous."
The deadly incident last week occurred during a hike in which Jews entered the territory of the village of Tel in the Nablus area. Local residents confronted them, and the event ended with the theft of a weapon, the murder of Binyamin Melet, a member of the Havat Gilad standby squad, and the deaths of Major Yuval Ezra and four Palestinians, residents of the village of Tel. In the interview, lawyer Yehuda justified the riots carried out by settlers afterward.
When asked about the status of Havat Gilad, he told the BBC that international law is irrelevant, because the Bible gives Jews the right to live in Judea and Samaria. He criticized the government and the IDF, which in his view do not support Jewish claims to the land enough. He also criticized the army, which he said in many cases does not use enough lethal force against Palestinians during clashes.
"The government and the IDF are like the UN. They don't kill the Palestinians, they only separate the people. Later, because they don't kill Palestinians, the Palestinians kill us," he said.
The article notes that according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 18 Palestinians have been killed during clashes with settlers since the beginning of 2026, and at least 12 of them directly by settlers.
Meanwhile, this weekend there were further reports of violence by settlers. According to the Palestinians, an elderly couple was beaten on Saturday while in their orchard near the village of Beitillu, northwest of Ramallah; they were evacuated for treatment in light-to-moderate condition. Additionally, footage was published showing masked settlers attacking a house in the town of Surif northwest of Hebron and setting fire to a family car. No casualties were reported.
