Jewish terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by jewish fundamentalists."Explaining Part 1: The Axis of Good and Evil." Section "Terrorism Across Religions." by Mark Burgess. Agentura.ru. The phrase has been used by some, including Israeli government officials, to describe Israeli settler violence.
Zealotry in the 1st century
According to Mark Burgess (a Center for Defense Information research analyst), the 1st century Jewish political and religious movement called Zealotry was one of the first examples of the use of terrorism by Jews. They sought to incite the people of Judaea to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from Israel by force of arms. The term Zealot, in Hebrew kanai, means one who is zealous on behalf of God.Zealot, Online Etymology DictionaryZelotes, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon", at Perseus The most extremist groups of Zealots were called Sicarii. Sicarii used violent stealth tactics against Romans. Under their cloaks they concealed sicae, small daggers, from which they received their name. At popular assemblies, particularly during the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies (Romans or Roman sympathizers, Herodians), lamenting ostentatiously after the deed to blend into the crowd to escape detection. In one account, given in the Talmud, Sicarii destroyed the city's food supply so that the people would be forced to fight against the Roman siege instead of negotiating peace. Sicarii also raided Jewish habitations and killed fellow Jews whom they considered apostates and collaborators.
Mandatory Palestine
From 1939 to 1947, two Jewish terrorist organisations, Irgun and Lehi, engaged in terrorist activities with a view to undermining Britain's control over Palestine.
Post-1948
Jewish terrorism in Israel existed for a few years during the 1950s and was directed at internal Israeli-Jewish targets, not at the Israeli Arab population.Gal-or, Noemi (editor; 2004). Tolerating Terrorism in the West: An International Survey. Routledge. . pp. 61–62 There was then a long intermission until the 1980s, when the Jewish Underground was exposed. The phenomenon of price tag attacks began around 2008. These are hate crimes committed by extremist settler Jewish Israelis that usually involve the destruction of property or hateful graffiti, particularly targeting property associated with Arabs, Christians, secular Israelis, and Israeli soldiers. The name was derived from the words "Price tag" which may be scrawled on the site of the attack — with the allegation that the attack was a "price" for settlements the government forced them to give up and revenge for Palestinian attacks on settlers.
Researchers Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger suggested that similarities exist between Jewish religious terrorists and jihad networks in Western democracies, among them: alienation and isolation from the values of the majority, mainstream culture, which they view as an existential threat to their own community; and that their ideology is not exclusively "religious", as it attempts to achieve political, territorial, and nationalistic goals as well (e.g. the disruption of the Camp David accords). However, the newer of these Jewish groups have tended to emphasize religious motives for their actions at the expense of secular ones. In the case of Jewish terrorism in modern Israel, most networks consist of religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews living in isolated, homogeneous communities. However, unlike jihad networks, Jewish terrorists have not engaged in mass-casualty attacks, with the exception of Baruch Goldstein.
Shin Bet has complained that the Israeli government is too lenient in dealing with religious extremism of Jewish extremists who want the creation of a Jewish land based on halacha, Jewish religious laws. Says Haaretz: "The Shin Bet complained that the courts are too lenient, particularly in enforcement against those who violate restraining orders distancing them from the West Bank or restricting their movement. The Shin Bet supports the position of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, who has called for limited use of administrative detention against Jewish terrorists.""Settler Terror Underground Seeks to Overthrow Israeli Government, Say Investigators". Haaretz, 3 August 2015. Israeli agencies keeping tabs on the religious terrorist groups say they are "anarchist" and "anti-Zionist", motivated to bring down the government of Israel and create a new Israeli "kingdom" that would operate according to halacha (Jewish law). A week after the July 2015 attacks, administrative detention was approved for Jewish terror suspects. In 2024, Haaretz reported that the settlements and outposts from which many settler attacks come are financed by the Israeli government.Haaretz's investigation reveals that at least six government ministries are involved in financing and maintaining this whole burgeoning enterprise, whose underlying purpose is the forceful takeover of land and systematic dispossession of Palestinian residents.
In July 2026, a letter signed by 600 former security officials from the Israel Police, Mossad, and Shin Bet warned US President Trump against Jewish terrorism, the support provided to them by the current government of Israel, and the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, citing negative consequences for US national interests and regional stability. The letter added that "While [Israel's] security agencies excel at confronting [...] Palestinian terrorist organizations in the West Bank, they are severely constrained when it comes to Jewish terrorists". The letter came amid a hike in settler violence in the West bank.
Terrorist groups
The following groups have been considered religious terrorist organizations in Israel (in chronological order by establishment year):
1950s Brit HaKanaim ( "Covenant of the Zealots") was a radical religious Jewish underground organization which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, against the widespread trend of secularisation in the country. The ultimate goal of the movement was to impose Jewish religious law in the State of Israel and establish a Halakhic state.Pedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie (2009). Jewish Terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press, pg 33-37. The Kingdom of Israel group ( Malkhut Yisrael) or Tzrifin Underground, were active in Israel in the 1950s. The group carried out attacks on the diplomatic facilities of the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and occasionally shot at Jordanian troops stationed along the border in Jerusalem. Members of the group were caught trying to bomb the Israeli Ministry of Education in May 1953, have been described as acting because of the secularisation of Jewish North African immigrants which they saw as 'a direct assault on the religious Jews' way of life and as an existential threat to the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.'Pedahzur & Perliger (2009), p. 31-33
1980s Jewish Underground (1979–1984): formed by members of the Israeli political movement Gush Emunim.Lustick, Ian S. For The Land and The Lord: The Evolution of Gush Emunim. Political Science website at U. of Pennsylvania. This group is most well known for two actions: firstly, for bomb attacks on the mayors of West Bank cities on 2 June 1980, and secondly, an abandoned plot to blow up the Temple Mount mosques. The Israeli Judge Zvi Cohen, heading the sentencing panel at the group's trial, stated that they had three motives, "not necessarily shared by all the defendants. The first motive, at the heart of the Temple Mount conspiracy, is religious."Pedahzur, Ami; Perliger, Arie (2009). Jewish Terrorism in Israel chapter 3. Columbia University Press Keshet (Kvutza Shelo Titpasher) (1981–1989): A Tel Aviv anti-Zionist Haredi group focused on bombing property without loss of life.Radical Orthodox Group Terrorizes Secular Israelis. Pittsburgh Press Feb 25, 1989Sprinzak, Ehud. Brother against brother: violence and extremism in Israeli politics p. 277 Yigal Marcus, Tel Aviv District Police commander, said that he considered the group a gang of criminals, not a terrorist group.Critical essays on Israeli society, politics, and culture By Ian Lustick, Barry M. Rubin, Association for Israel Studies, p. 71 Kach, a banned far-right party in Israel (officially registered 1971–1994), and its splinter group Kahane Chai (1991-1994), also banned. Today, both groups are considered terrorist organisations by Israel, Canada, the European Union and the United States. The groups are believed to have an overlapping core membership of fewer than 100 people. The Jewish Defense League in America, founded by Kahane, is also considered terrorist. FBI statistics show that, from 1980 to 1985, 15 terrorist attacks were attempted in the U.S. by JDL members. The FBI's Mary Doran described the JDL in 2004 Congressional testimony as "a proscribed terrorist group". The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization." Terror Against Terror (Terror Neged Terror, "TNT"), active 1975–1984, was a radical Jewish militant organization that sponsored several attacks against Palestinian targets. The group was founded by Meir Kahane's Kach organization, and took its name from Kahane's theory that Arab terrorism should be met with Jewish terrorism. Sicarii, an Israeli terrorist group founded in 1989 who made arson and graffiti attacks on leftist Jewish politicians. They were opposed to any process of rapprochement with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The "Bat Ayin Underground" or Bat Ayin group. In 2002, four people from Bat Ayin and Hebron were arrested outside of Abu Tor School, a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem, with a trailer filled with explosives. Three of the men were convicted for the attempted bombing.
2000s Lehava (est. 2005), was referred to as an extreme religious minority trying through terror to implement their views of how the society should look. In January 2015, Channel 2 reported that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be preparing to categorize Lehava as a terrorist organization. Ya'alon was reported to have ordered the Shin Bet and the Defense Ministry to assemble evidence required for the classification."Report: Ya'alon moves to name anti-assimilation group Lehava a terrorist organization". The Jerusalem Post, 4 Jan 2015. Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni stated that Ya'alon's move to name anti-assimilation group Lehava a terrorist organization should have been made months before. "This organization works from hatred, racism, and nationalism, and its goal is to bring an escalation of violence within us", she said.Livni: Ya'alon's attempt to label Lahava a terrorist group comes too late Jerusalem Post, 4 Jan 2015 Tamar Hermann, a sociologist and pollster with the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), reports that government action against Lehava has only come following months of petitioning by "left-leaning Israelis and media commentators." Israeli rabbi Binyamin Lau, warned that: "Lehava wants to implement a reign of religious terror." Sikrikim (first appeared in 2005), a radical group of ultra-Orthodox Jews based mainly in the Israeli ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods Meah Shearim in Jerusalem and in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The anti-Zionist group is thought to have roughly 100 activist members. The Sikrikim gained international attention for acts of violence they committed against Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals who would not comply with their demands. They are loosely affiliated with Neturei Karta.Amoni, P. An Interview with Rav Shlomo Pappenheim. Ami Magazine, September 2011