‘I am the police, I am the army’: blacklisted settler’s rule in West Bank

Israeli settler activists. In the occupied West Bank, it can be difficult to distinguish between IDF soldiers and settlers in uniform, villagers say. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

“Call me Yakov,” the burly, red-bearded settler told the Palestinian villagers who lived in his shadow. They should, it was understood, consider him their mukhtar, their chief, mayor and sheriff.

It was only after he was singled out for sanctions by the US government last week that they learned his real name: Yitzhak Levi Filant.