Over 200 prominent Israelis urge PM to end West Bank violence — newspaper

NEW YORK, September 1. /TASS/. More than 200 prominent Israelis, including former senior officials and military officers, signed a letter in June, calling on the government to stop attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, The New York Times reported, citing sources.

According to the paper, "the signatories included two former prime ministers, more than three dozen retired Army and Air Force generals, the former heads of the nation’s foreign and domestic intelligence services, as well as rabbis, a Nobel laureate and one of Israel’s most revered novelists."

In their letter, they called for an end to "Jewish terrorism" and the "ethnic cleansing" underway in the West Bank. They also accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of failing to stop the violence and pursuing a deliberate policy in which the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security service and the police are complicit.

Accusations from such a large group of former senior Israeli officials "are virtually unheard of," The New York Times noted.