Ehud Olmert: Settler leaders provide Jewish rioters in the West Bank with political support and protection from the Shin Bet and the police – who by law are supposed to punish them
A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank. Gangs of armed settlers persecute, harm, wound and even kill Palestinians living there. The rampages include burning olive groves, houses and cars; breaking into homes; and physically assaulting people.
They also harm, scatter and try to steal flocks of sheep. The rioters, the Jewish terrorists, storm Palestinians with hate and violence with one objective: to force them to flee from their homes. All this is done in the hopes that the land will then be prepared for Jewish settlement – en route to realizing the dream of annexing all the territories.
Police officers and soldiers are closing their eyes to all this. Those who try to defend the rioters claim that they are a small minority, a few dozen teenage hooligans who do not represent the public living in the territories, who ostensibly oppose the acts of violence. But we are talking about hundreds of violent young men who could not riot without having been armed at the initiative of, and inspiration by, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. In other words, a militia is operating in the West Bank with the backing, support and aid – direct and indirect – of Israeli government officials.
The Israel Police is also a source of inspiration for the Jewish terrorists. Every day, acts of hooliganism are committed against Palestinians, and amazingly, the police are unable to identify the rioters, preempt their actions, or arrest any of them afterwards. The victims of the criminal acts are often the targets of police enforcement. Palestinians are arrested, not the Jewish terrorists. Were this a one-off incident, or a specific police failure, it might be possible to justify its deficiency. But under the current circumstances, there is no choice but to recognize that this is a deliberate policy. The police are actively abetting, as a policy, the committing of criminal acts.
The performance of the Shin Bet security agency should also be questioned, in view of the repeated incidents of Jewish terrorist acts. It seems that the Shin Bet isn’t using the effective means it exercises against Palestinian terrorism against the Jewish terrorists. It isn’t working hard to foil Jewish terrorism in advance, identify the rioters, find the gangs’ leaders and arrest them.
The Defense Ministry is also a collaborator in this policy. Remember the defense minister’s announcement: No more administrative detention orders against Jews. That was a clear signal to the rioters that possibly the only obstacle that might deter them has been removed.
Not only aren’t military forces in the territories acting to prevent the riots, they often collaborate with the rioters, or, in cases of near incidents, see them and do nothing.
Religious leaders, the settler movement’s leaders and the heads of the regional councils in the West Bank provide the envelope of protection and backing, political support, public assistance and defense for the rioters from those who are supposed to operate against them according to law, morality and Jewish heritage and tradition. The most striking example is Mateh Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz. Remember his eulogy at the funeral for Tzeela Gez from the settlement of Bruchin, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists on her way with her husband to give birth at the hospital (the fetus died a few days later).
Ganz said, “The only way to prevent these serious terrorist attacks is to turn the city centers and villages, from which the murderers leave, into ruins.” The large audience was silent. No voice of protest was heard against the incitement by one of their prominent leaders.
The leaders represent the opinion of a large part of the public living in the West Bank. There is no way to excuse or defend this public. Many representatives of the Jewish terrorists on media panels claim that the “hilltop youths” are a very small group, a minority of rioters, most of whom suffer from symptoms of social maladjustment. That’s a lie. The Jewish public living in the territories covers for the rioters, protects them and gives them all the practical support they need to hide, to protect themselves from those who must reach them to stop them. There is no other way to explain the total silence of the residents of the territories in the face of what is happening before their eyes.
It may be because the rioters operate in a supportive and encouraging environment. The large Jewish population – hundreds of thousands – in the territories avoids responding because these youth apparently represent their will, aspirations and hope that, one day, they will be able to get rid of their Palestinian neighbors and become the sole owners of the territory that the God of Israel, according to their faith, promised to the Jewish people and to them alone.
In a properly functioning state (and Israel hasn’t been a properly functioning state for years), the police, State Prosecutor’s Office, courts, government, prime minister and the president would stand against these rioters. But it seems that in a country where all the rules of public conduct have been broken, and the most basic principles of human decency and tolerance have been trampled, the chances that any of them will stand up and stop the crimes are vanishingly small.
In the absence of a natural domestic response, it can only be hoped that the international community will take diplomatic measures to force the government to apply the mechanisms that are supposed to operate in a democratic country, to stop the crimes against humanity committed under its patronage, cover, backing, and, to a large extent, with its support.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague might be the inevitable address to investigate and expose those responsible, and take the measures that will ultimately lead to their arrest and trial.
The arrest warrants that the International Criminal Court issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the grounds that they are responsible for war crimes in Gaza were groundless. It’s very reasonable to argue that war crimes were committed in Gaza. It’s now known that irregular incidents happened there, which meet the definition of war crimes, and the country will have to deal with whatever is investigated and discovered. But I cannot support the oft-stated claim that there was a deliberate policy that led to such crimes. It is therefore very likely that the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant were not based on solid evidence indicating their personal and direct responsibility.
That is not the case with what is happening in the territories. Here, everything is in the open and done in front of those parties responsible for enforcing the law. The silence; avoiding an appropriate crushing response; the cover-up; and the support, all these are entirely the fault of the government and those who lead it.
When the inevitable international response comes, many people will claim that it’s another expression of antisemitism and hatred of Israel. There is antisemitism in the world and its many manifestations in Europe and America, and in Australia too, require a strong and comprehensive response, which regrettably is not always duly expressed by the deeds and decisions of world leaders. But those who take steps against Jewish terrorists and their supporters will be worthy of recognition and gratitude, and the sooner they do so, the better.
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