If you read the English-language Arab media, including Al Jazeera, or much of the mainstream media in the Western world, you would be under the impression that the government of Israel has raised no objection to the settlers who have been rampaging in Judea and Samaria after a series of terrorist murders. But that’s not the case at all. Every single important official, from Prime Minister Netanyahu on down, has denounced those settlers. Netanyahu reminded them that Israel is a country “governed by laws,” that citizens do not take the law into their hands, and that those who do will be prosecuted. The three heads of the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israeli police issued a joint statement denouncing those settler vigilantes. More on their statement, and Israel’s determination to put a stop to settler violence, can be found here: “IDF, Shin Bet, police chiefs denounce settler attacks as ‘terror,’ vow to fight them,” by Emanuel Fabian, Times of Israel, June 24, 2023:
In a rare joint statement, top officials say that vigilante attacks targeting Palestinian civilians ‘contradict Jewish values,’ and divert forces from fighting Palestinian terror
Israel Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai in a joint statement on Saturday [June 24]strongly condemned an ongoing series of settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, branding them as “nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term.”…
“In recent days, violent attacks by Israeli citizens against innocent Palestinians have been carried out in the Judea and Samaria area,” the security chiefs’ statement read, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name. “These attacks contradict every moral and Jewish value and constitute nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term, and we are obliged to fight them.”…
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a separate statement condemning the settler attack on Umm Safa.
“This is not our way,” Gallant said on Twitter.
Gallant expressed support for IDF troops operating in the West Bank and called for them “to act to maintain order and prevent acts of uncontrolled violence by residents of the area.”
The IDF has admitted having “failed” in stopping other settler riots in recent days.
Hours after the Tuesday terror attack near the settlement of Eli where four Israelis were gunned down at a gas station, an unknown number of settler vigilantes rampaged through several Palestinian towns in the northern West Bank, including Huwara, the scene of another deadly settler riot earlier this year after a terror attack….
The first settler rampage in took place in Huwara in February, after the murder of two Israeli young men, the Yaniv brothers. The Israelis at the time took a strong stance against the settlers who rampaged through ,the village with the Israeli general in charge of Judea and Samaria, Major-General Yehuda Fuchs, describing their acts as a “pogrom.” That was a great exaggeration, but did show the depth of Israeli officials’ embarrassment and anger at the settlers’ behavior.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 24 people, including Tuesday’s victims. Over the past year, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted troops carrying out arrest raids, military posts, Israeli settlements and civilians on roads, especially in the northern West Bank.
All but one of those Israelis killed — the victims of terror attacks — were civilians. In the last few months there have been a series of horrific murders of Israelis in Judea and Samaria. The victims included two brothers, Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, Lucy Dee and her two daughters Rina and Maia, Meri Tamari, and four Israelis sitting at a gas station near the settlement of Eli, Harel Masood, Elisha Anteman, Ofer Fayerman, and Shmuel Mordoff. Those murders finally led to that collective outpouring of fury and grief by settlers who rampaged through several Palestinian villages.
The rage and despair of the settlers, many of whom knew the victims, are humanly understandable, but they do not excuse, much less justify, those rampages during which Palestinian cars, houses, and fields were set on fire, and at least one Palestinian, Omar Qattin, was killed.
The IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israeli Police have condemned, in the strongest possible terms, the behavior of the rampaging settlers, whom they describe as sowing “terror.” But will the Arab media report on this denunciation, or will they continue to make it seem as if the government of Israel approves of what the settlers did? And why has the Western media been so reluctant to report on the repeated denunciations of the settlers by Israeli officials, including this latest joint statement by Israel’s security services? Could that Western media possibly want to make the Jewish state look bad? You know the answer, alas, to that.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Looks like Israeli authorities are bitten by the same secular bug as Indian ones. Where Jews or Hindus defending their rights to live normal lives is seen as hateful bigotry against muslims. I’d be for some Zionist party replacing Likud whenever possible – Bibi has been there too long and looks more like a Mitch McConnell or a Chris Christtie
Ralph says
Even I understand the “settlers” anger ,nobody has the right to make self -justice .