When a Jew Murders an Innocent Arab

Image of clash for illustration purposes (Arutz Sheva)

Very few things that happen in the world make me as angry as the following incident reported in Arutz Sheva: 

PA sources claimed that Jews from the outpost of Oz Tzion entered Burqa and were confronted by locals. In the ensuing clashes, they claimed, the Jews shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian Arab...

 Israeli security officials confirmed that a Jewish resident of Oz Tzion shot dead a Palestinian Arab youth in Burqa.

I don’t even know where to begin. The idea of killing innocent human beings is so foreign to Judaism I can’t believe that a Jew of any stripe would ever do such a thing. Sure, there are psychopaths and sociopaths among our people. But when an ideology is the basis for doing that – it not only delegitimizes that ideology, it is so abhorrent that  any political party that adheres to that ideology ought to be outlawed by any government that calls itself Jewish. Anyone promoting any element of that kind of ideology ought to be barred from serving as a member of the Knesset, let alone serving as part of a ruling coalition.

And yet there is at least one individual that has in the past actually sympathized with murderers like the one in this very sad episode. Ben-Gvir may not condone such behavior as a matter of policy, but his rhetoric certainly inspires it, as does his oft expressed sympathy for them. 

Whenever a story like this surfaces, my condemnation of  the Jewish perpetrator elicits responses from the right about how I could be so angry at a Jewish settler who may have killed in self defense while never expressing anywhere near the sympathy for victims and their families - or anger at a Palestinian that does the same or worse to a Jew.

The truth is that they are half right. First I reject the notion that I do not have sympathy for the victims and their families. I cry over any Jew killed by our enemies. Enemies that hate us so much – they consider it a ‘Mitzvah’ to kill Jews. But my critics are right about my being angrier over a Jew killing an innocent human being than I am over a terrorist killing an innocent Jew 

Unfortunately for a lot of reasons that is the way many Palestinians think about us. I am therefore not  all that surprised when a terrorist attack happens and innocent Jews get slaughtered just for being Jews. That does not, God forbid, lessen my sympathy for the victims and their families, but it does not elicit the anger that does when a Jew – often a right wing Religious Zionist observant Jew does it.

Killing innocent Palestinian teenagers in some sort of  ‘tit for tat’ motive is not what Judaism is about. It is instead anti Jewish; a serious violation of Halacha (i.e. murder); and comprises a massive Chilul HaShem. It does not matter what that clash was about or who was right or wrong. Nor does it matter how the clash escalated into violence - or who was responsible for that escalation. It ended up with a Jew murdering an innocent human being.

Furthermore things like this do the opposite of what is intended. They might think that giving them a ‘taste of their own medicine’ would give them pause about doing it to us again. But what it does instead is harden their resolve to keep doing it. Which they certainly will - hating us even more - if that’s even possible!. 

It also gives ammunition to those that desire to delegitimize the Jewish state and call us the real terrorist since when they do it is in ‘self defense’ against the occupiers. When a Jew does it, it can be interpreted as the government (e.g the ruling coalition of which Ben-Gvir is a part)  inspiring it and even condoning it.

For me the real issue is the ideology that inspires this kind of thing. Which can be traced back to Rabbi Meir Kahane’s hateful rhetoric that preached hate. His view was to expel any Arab that was not willing to give up their right to vote and allow Jews to rule over all of Eretz Yisroel. Something that is clearly not going to happen until messianic times.

This is the inspiration behind Ben-Gvir’s ideology. He is an all or nothing kind of guy. He wants to assert Jewish authority over all of Eretz Yisroel. And any Arab that opposes it can leave. They hate us anyway.

But that view is demonstrably false. Not all Arabs are terrorists. Not all Arabs hate us. There are many Arabs that are some of the finest and most honorable human beings in Israel. As Jonathan Rosenblum noted in his recent Mishpacha column. His recent heart attack was an occasion for him to experience that first hand: 

Any visitor to Shaare Zedek or either of the Hadassah campuses will be struck by the way that Jews and Arabs appear to work in complete harmony and mutual respect and the large numbers of Arabs in senior positions. Both the doctors to whom I spoke on my first visit to the emergency room were young Arabs, and it was the second one who performed the procedure to balloon an obstructed artery. And a chareidi nurse and my daughter-in-law both recommended a senior Arab physician to do the next procedure in a few weeks. 

This is not the first time I have read a story like this. One may recall the life saving surgery performed by an Arab doctor a few years ago to a victim of terror - and the lifelong friendship between them that ensued. 

Why one finds such harmony and respect between Arab and Jew in Israeli hospitals while there is so much hatred of us out in Judea and Sumeria (the West Bank) is a topic all its own that is beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say there is a lot of blame to go around on both the Arab side and the Jewish side. And that the Ben-Gvir’s of the world are part of the problem, not the solution.

That he is given any authority in Israel depresses and even disgusts me. I know he means well for the Jewish people. But so too did Yasser Arafat mean well for his. Birds of a feather in terrorist ideology - if not in degree.  

Back to the murderer who killed that Palestinian teenager. He ought to be stripped of Israeli citizenship and issued the maximum penalty allow by Israeli law. Which probably means life in prison without the  possibility of parole.  Perhaps more importantly Oz Tzion  the ‘outpost’ they are from ought to be dismantled. Right along with other outposts like it. 

And if there is any justice in the world, unless Ben Gvir’s party sees justice the way I just described it  it ought to be outlawed too. 

To those that might retort that doing that would disenfranchise all those who voted for him - I’m not buying it. I do not believe that any decent human being supports a political party that condones or excuses what happened in Burqa. 

What his voters want is a strong response to terror and the right to freely live anywhere in Israel they choose without fear of being attacked. That may be a pipe dream but they are entitled to believe that. If Ben Gvir’s party is outlawed, another party will surely arise that will more precisely reflect what they want - without condoning or excusing murder.