The horror of Amona - Haaretz

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Thu., January 17, 2008 Shvat 10, 5768

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Last update - 23:17 16/01/2008

The horror of Amona

By Alexander Yakobson

Tags: settlements, Israel, Amona

There is certainly more than one reason for the ongoing scandal regarding the non-evacuation of the illegal West Bank outposts, a matter on which the prime minister and defense minister trade accusations in a way that sounds farcical. But it's clear that one of the reasons is the trauma of Amona. The government fears that outpost evacuation will be accompanied by serious violence and that it will be the one to pay the public price, which is what happened following the 2006 evacuation of the Amona outpost.

Those who organized the violence at Amona, then, achieved their goal - belligerent intimidation of the government. They stated from the beginning that they would oppose the evacuation with force - with great force - and they kept to their word, winning big from the fact that the suppression of the violence they instigated looked bad on camera.

I saw a live television broadcast that showed mounted police twice attempting to disperse the crowd without using their clubs. Both times, they were warded off with a shower of stones that were big enough to be seen clearly on the screen. The third time, the mounted police used their clubs, and naturally, this looked bad. Of course, the evening news showed just the third attack, and since then those images have been broadcast again and again.

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This doesn't mean that there wasn't also excessive and superfluous police violence, or that the police should be exempt from criticism. But in order to determine that police used excessive force, one must first accurately describe the force used against them, and that is something people tend not to do within the pseudo-humanitarian discourse developing in the wake of these events.

This discourse refuses to view keeping Israeli police officers' skulls intact as a humanitarian consideration. In addition, even when the police are legitimately criticized for an excess reaction to violence, it is the instigators of the violence who must be condemned first and foremost. Under no circumstances should they be allowed to gain political profit from the result of the confrontation they forced on the police.

The heroes and supporters of Amona are not alone. In its investigation of the October 2000 riots, which led to the deaths of 13 Arabs during clashes with police, the Or Commission - which did not shy away from criticizing the police - wrote the following about the conduct of Arab public officials.

"A pattern of threats of serious violence and of the use of violence for the sake of achieving various goals was engendered... Ahead of 2000, and during that year [there was] a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of clashes with police. Even though the slide from organized protests to unrestrained riots was consistently repeated, the Arab leadership did not make an effort to stop the deterioration toward violence... In addition, in the days following each event, public officials, in their statements and speeches, tended to heap praise on the protest activities, including violent activities."

The leaders described thus by the Or Commission emerged victorious in the public debate that developed after the publication of the commission's report, since that debate focused entirely on criticism of the police. This was the case even though the commission determined that before and during the riots, Arab leaders "transmitted messages encouraging violence," that "the intensity of the violence and aggression... was very high," and that this included "live fire in isolated cases." But who got to hear about the live fire? Not even one percent of the public debate dealt with that.

Police brutality against civilians is a real risk everywhere, and in Israel it's clear that Arab civilians are at greater risk than Jewish ones. We must deal with this risk - but fairly, without the language laundering that covers up deliberate political violence, and without rewarding that violence.

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1.	Untrue!-The Police Initiated the Violence	07:26	\|	Ben Israel	16/01/08

2.	Under no circumstances should they be allowed to gain	09:17	\|	Burned Liberal	16/01/08

3.	Scandals	10:28	\|	Ralph	16/01/08

4.	wrong the governement need to realise they are trustees only	10:59	\|	v hardman	16/01/08

5.	Scandalous is that there is still Israeli occupation	11:05	\|	John	16/01/08

6.	It`s in Israels interest to have bloody confrontations like Amona	11:17	\|	Natallie Durson	16/01/08

7.	A COVER FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF STEALINGS	13:06	\|	indrajaya	16/01/08

8.	Sasha, everybody knows that Olmert	13:23	\|	Vladimir	16/01/08

9.	Nonsense! The israeli government is hand in glove with these	14:06	\|	lakshmi	16/01/08

10.	to Natallie	14:59	\|	Rachel	16/01/08

11.	The Smell of Duplicity Is In The Air Here	15:24	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	16/01/08

12.	The smell of DUPLICITY Here	16:15	\|	B	16/01/08

13.	The horror of settlements	16:17	\|	daniel w	16/01/08

14.	The Truth Must Be Said	16:28	\|	JJ	16/01/08

15.	Disgrace and a scandal is the illegal arab construction and occup	16:28	\|	Joseph E .	16/01/08

16.	Disgrace and a scandal is the Iran illegal oupost of Gaza And	16:31	\|	Joseph E .	16/01/08

17.	belligerent threats and intimidation from the gov`t.	16:36	\|	Joseph E .	16/01/08

18.	# 10, RACHEL	17:03	\|	indrajaya	16/01/08

19.	the horror of amona	17:41	\|	stein	16/01/08

20.	In order to determine that police used excessive force,	17:56	\|	Joseph E .	16/01/08

21.	The only outposts that should be evacuated are Arab ones	18:27	\|	Feiglin for Leader	16/01/08

22.	let it be till too late	19:55	\|	Fair	16/01/08

23.	What the hell is this guy talking about? I saw it...	20:32	\|	bat yam	16/01/08

24.	i will do it alone,for 5% of i.d.f cost	21:19	\|	archie midas	16/01/08

25.	Amona style violence is inevitable when a government avoids	04:00	\|	Chaim	17/01/08

26.	Revenge of the Dead	04:27	\|	Yechiel	17/01/08

27.	in a culture of violence /violence is king	07:47	\|	tel aviv	17/01/08

28.	stand up to the fantical settelers	09:55	\|	SJ	17/01/08

29.	TV as Reality?	11:11	\|	Yitzhak Sokoloff	17/01/08

30.	Violence is what happened in Peki’in	12:44	\|	Efox	17/01/08

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