Democratic Candidate Moshe Radman Criticizes West Bank Settlements After Attack

Moshe Radman, the ninth candidate on the Democratic list, sparked controversy following his comments after a deadly attack in the West Bank. Radman sharply criticized the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, while expressing condolences to both the victim's and the assailant's families. He began by questioning how the media framed the incident according to the settlers' narrative but noted he did not yet know all the details and urged setting aside narrative battles.

Radman extended condolences to the families affected by the violence and cited the number of Israeli and Palestinian casualties as initially reported. He mentioned a group of Israelis who had gone "to hike" near the Palestinian village of Tal and argued there was no operational logic or visible reason to establish settlements like Givat Gilad in an area surrounded by Arab villages, nor to hike there. He emphasized he did not know who initiated the attack but expected clarity to emerge.

Further criticizing settlement policy, Radman stated Israel should not allocate military resources to protect "tourists" hiking near Palestinian villages or isolated settlements established by messianic groups. He called for de-escalation in the West Bank by halting settlement expansion, ending cooperation with messianic settlement initiatives, returning to negotiations, stopping the Palestinian Authority's decline, enforcing law in Area C, and intensifying the fight against both Palestinian and Jewish terrorism.