Israeli “National Security Minister” Itamar Ben Gvir has approved a major expansion of his firearm distribution policy, granting around 100,000 additional colonizers the right to obtain private gun licenses.
The move dramatically increases the number of paramilitary colonizers across the occupied West Bank.
Ben Gvir’s mass arming initiative began in late 2023 which is began seeing a dangerously increasing number of attacks against the Palestinians, their homes, and lands in the occupied West Bank.
The figures, over 230,000 new gun licenses issued since late 2023, with more than 120,000 weapons distributed, are sourced directly from the Ministry of National Security.
While the policy is framed as a “security measure,” rights groups warn it enables colonizer violence and accelerates Palestinian displacement.
In July alone, colonizers conducted 466 attacks targeting Palestinian civilians, killing four and forcibly displacing 50 families, totaling 267 individuals, from Arab al-Mleihat Bedouin community and Deir Alla.
That same month saw 232 incidents of property destruction, including the uprooting, poisoning, and burning of 2,844 trees, most of them olive trees central to Palestinian livelihood.
The policy enjoys full backing from the Israeli government, which continues to treat colonizers as legitimate recipients of arms despite their role in violent land seizures.
Critics say the initiative institutionalizes armed militias and deepens apartheid structures under the guise of civilian defense.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, which prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
