Israel must enforce law on West Bank settlers
Monday night's riots merely proves what has long since been obvious: In the West Bank, there is neither law nor judge as far as the settlers are concerned. They can run riot to their heart's content.
Haaretz Editorial Tags: Israeli settlers West BankWhat happened on Monday night merely proves what has long since been obvious: In the West Bank, there is neither law nor judge as far as the settlers are concerned. They can run riot to their heart's content.
There is a direct connection between the findings of Chaim Levinson's investigation into the performance of the Israel Police's Judea and Samaria District, which were published in Haaretz on Friday, and events in the West Bank on Monday. About 100 settlers and right-wing activists rioted near the Ephraim Brigade's base. Around 50 of them broke into the base and proceeded to vandalize vehicles, burn tires and throw stones at the brigade commander, Col. Ran Kahana, and his deputy, who was hit in the head.
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Settlers near the outpost of Givat Menachem, 2010. |
| Photo by: Haggai Ofen |
At about the same time, other settlers were running riot along Route 55 and stoning Palestinian cars. Earlier that day, some of the "hilltop youth" broke into a closed site near the Jordan River, Qasr al-Yahud, and barricaded themselves inside. In another incident, five Bratslav Hasidim sneaked into Joseph's Tomb, in Nablus, without permission. All this occurred in a single night's rampage.
This is nothing new, of course. In September settlers broke into Binyamin Brigade headquarters and ran riot there. But the scale of the latest incidents proves that we are no longer talking about a handful of "wild weeds" on the margins of the settler community.
And the Israel Defense Forces, as is its wont, stood idly by: Not one of the dozens of people who participated in Monday's rampage was arrested. That's how the army always behaves when it comes to settlers. The IDF, the police and the Shin Bet security service stand idly by when settlers rampage against Palestinians, torching mosques, groves, cars and houses. Now they stand idly by even when the targets are IDF bases and commanders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to condemn what happened yesterday and to convene consultations. But it is a belated and hypocritical response. He and the heads of the military establishment know full that settlers routinely run riot in the West Bank with impunity. Those who did nothing when mosques were torched are now reaping attacks on the army. And those who stay silent now will reap attacks on Jews within Israel.
The government must immediately authorize a forceful and determined operation to stop Jewish terror in the West Bank. It must break the armed militias and impose law and order. For it is not the settlers alone who bear responsibility for the lawlessness: The prime minister and the heads of the military establishment are also responsible.
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That's the situation in Israel, and its called apartheid.
and now you write about enforcing the law ???? I bet that you do not "select" this talkback for publication - then you will write an editorial about 'censorship'
Since 1994 and the Shamgar Commission of Inquiry into the Goldstein Massacre the Government and the Settlers have partnered in the occupation. The biggest cost of that partnership is the erosion of the rule of the laws of the state in the West Bank and the undermining of our democracy. For as Settlers abide by the laws of the Torah and their individual interpretation by settlement-ghetto rabbis, they ignore the laws of the state and its democracy both within the occupation and in the Knesset and the cabinet. Shamgar who thought he'd laid down the laws in the occupied territories post 1967 was appalled to discover during the Goldstein Massacre Commission hearings, just how far those laws had been subverted and that was fully 17 years ago. Successive governments in their partnerships with the settlers have created a powder keg, one minor explosion of which occurred at the Ephraim Brigade base, and others have already happened with 'price-tag' attacks against Palestinians, mosques, Peace Now activists etc. There is really only one solution to stopping the keg blowing up in all our faces and it isn't merely imposing state law on the West Bank settlers. To assert the state's control over the occupation demands a referendum on its future and time table for its conclusion, where the majority of the people vote thus. What is clear now, or should be, is that that partnership with the settlers is over. The state can no longer allow itself to be challenged and threatened by those who call themselves citizens, abuse the benefits they grab and become another state as a result. They cannot be both citizens and settlers and we cannot permit this game to go on. It is either the state of Israel or the settlers - not both. And dreadful though this conclusion is, it is the only one, when the settlers tell us that they have the right to defend themselves...against the IDF!
The riots in Judea & Samaria are being carried out by a handful of radicals. They have been condemned by everybody, including other settlers and their political supporters. Also can we seriously say that around 100 individuals represents the attitudes of all the settlers, if 100 members of Hamas started walking around with banners saying WE WANT PEACE would anybody seriously thing that Hamas is becoming an organization that believes in peace rather than terror consider there are thousands of Hamas supporters not just the 100 calling for peace? The government has also stated that what they did was unacceptable and they will be punished for it.
These scum are the shock troops for you and all the other settler apologists and enablers...the ones who have so grossly perverted the Zionist vision that the ends justifies the means. You are not any better than those who do your bidding.
no matter what it is called. This country is headed the way of Rhodesia and South Africa.
According to the military regulation that rule Judea and Samaria, when someone (even a civilian) witnesses an individual committing property crimes or about to commit property crimes, they have the authority to detain that person for three hours while the magav/police are called. These latter officials then have the authority to arrest. The army knows full well they can detain Israeli citizens for the police - they do it every day to the Left.
Probably. Judging by the calibre of people in the Knesset. One should rather write it with a small k as well.
in reality.
And the occupation needs to be ended yesterday