This week a Yeshiva student was killed by Palestinian terrorist near the illegal settlement Homesh. The 23-year old Israeli was killed by gunfire and two of his friends that were with him in the car were injured. The attack occurred after a week in which the Minister of Public Security came under fire from both coalition and opposition members of the Knesset, for discussing “Settler Violence” with a senior American official.
It is ironic, that the continuous attacks of Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank on Palestinians, damaging property, homes, cars and agricultural assets such as olive trees, thereby destroying the livelihood of these Palestinians, and in several instances killing people (the attack in Duma) are called “Settler Violence”, while the killing and wounding of Israelis in the West Bank is called “terrorism”.
The killing of innocent people such as the student this week cannot be tolerated in any way and the Israeli Army has vowed not to rest until the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice. It is right and maybe even reassuring that every effort is made to apprehend terrorist murderers. These attacks are in most cases politically motivated and it is mostly unclear if known terrorist organizations, or even the Palestinian Authority is behind these attacks.
But with the same logic, “Settler Violence” is just as despicable and should be treated with the same severity even if it is euphemistically only called violence and not terrorism. Even if it does not in all cases result in murder, not calling it terrorism only encourages the perpetrators (who are in almost all cases settlers) Only if they start killing Palestinians will we then call it terrorism?
The reactions to Bar-Lev’s utterances ranged from calling him “confused” to unprofessional and worse (with Bezalel Smotrich calling him a “Bastard” at least according to news reports). Interior Minister Ayeled Shaked, tried to explain to him that the settlers are “The Salt of the Earth” and Prime Minister Bennett called the settlers “our Protective Wall” and said we need to protect them in word and deed.
It is so easy to distort reality if it suits your purpose and right-wing politicians in Israel have become real experts in portraying situations in a very specific light while totally ignoring both reality and proportionality.
No matter how you look at it: settlers carry out almost daily attacks on the Palestinian population and in particular during the recently ended olive harvest season, the violence of settlers against Palestinian farmers (and the “Left-Wing” Israelis that come to help them) reached worrisome proportions. Denying it or diminishing its scope or severity is almost daily refuted by newspaper reports (and not only in Haaretz) and no doubt only a fraction of the incidents is reported. Prime Minister Bennett called it a fringe effect and it is wrong to generalize and condemn a whole population group for the violence. But isn’t the Palestinian violence carried out by a fringe element in the same way? And if it is a fringe effect, should it be tolerated or ignored?
Bar-Lev never claimed that all of the settlers are engaged in violence (or in terrorism) but that does not mean that those who are should be pursued and apprehended and this is exactly the task that Bar-Lev is responsible for. It has been claimed that by diminishing its importance or impact, Bennett only will encourage the violent elements and the Jewish terrorism will increase. Some even claim that maybe that is Bennett’s aim from the beginning and the settles are only doing the right-wing’s dirty job in trying to destroy Palestinian life on the Occupied West Bank.
It should be experienced as refreshing that a Public Security minister looks at violence for what it is and not only by whom it is done and decides that violence needs to be curtailed, if it is Jewish violence or Palestinian violence. And maybe it will also help in making the Israeli public more aware that “Settler Violence” is also terrorism, just as much as Palestinian Terrorism is “Occupied Inhabitant Violence”.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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