Settler Violence - Real and Imagined

Settler Leader, Daniella Weiss (TOI)

Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.  In the case of religious Jews it is usually done with the best of religious intentions. I have pointed this out numerous times. One of the most extreme examples of that is the Satmar oriented Neturei Karta. They have shown up in solidarity with Palestinians at a number of their rallies recently. Believing that they are following the will of God by doing so. The reason they believe that is beyond the scope of this post. Point being that Jews are being killed while they support those that are doing the killing

But what I find just as upsetting is when Religious Zionist extremists set up illegal makeshift settlements near Palestinian villages for purposes of harassing them into leaving Israel. That often leads to violent confrontation.  Sometimes ending with a settler killing a Palestinian. The typical narrative of such incidents by their supporters and defenders is that it was a case of self defense. The claim that every incident like that was an instance of self defense by a settler is false.

Now this doesn’t mean that every West Bank Palestinian killed by a settlers is intentional . Most are  probably not.  But not all. Many such incidents start out as harassment by extremists for purposes of driving them out of Israel! Which in some cases escalates into violence and even murder.  

The situation has deteriorated since October 7^th. On the one hand Palestinians on the West Bank  might be more inclined to attack Jews because of what’s happening in Gaza. The settlers have no choice but to defend themselves. On the other hand the events of October 7^th have given rise to an even greater determination by the extremist settlers to rid all of biblical Israel of Palestinians.

I don’t know much about Daniella Weiss other than she is a religious Zionist activist with a long rap sheet who was once mayor of a West Bank settlement town. NBC reporter, Richard Engel (who is Jewish and whose reporting has been a lot more sympathetic to Israel than that of other network reporters) interviewed her and described her as a leader in the settler movement. (The interview can be seen here.) 

He asked her if driving the Arabs out of Israel was her goal. She responded with an unequivocal yes. Explaining that after the massacre of 1200 of her friends (i.e.Jews) on October 7^th she had no choice. Her patience ran out. She has no room in her heart for mercy for Israel’s enemies – and is determined to drive them all out of the land!

Weiss obviously equates all Palestinians with Hamas. Granted there is a degree of substance to her claims. As recent polls have shown, over 80% of all Palestinians support Hamas and what they did on October 7^th. But that leaves a 20% that do not support Hamas. There is no justification for expelling them all.  And even among the 80% that do support what Hamas did, very few of them would ever do it themselves.

Driving out Palestinian farmers that have been living on the West Bank for generations, most of whom had never harmed a hair on the head of a single Jew is both immoral and counterproductive to Israel’s image as a humanitarian people.

If these makeshift illegal settlements had not been put up, I believe that most of these Palestinian villagers would simply be living their lives, farming their land; tending to their flocks, and raising their families.  And not involved in terrorizing Israelis. (Yes... I know there are more than a few exceptions that do become terrorists. But I believe that most just want to live their lives without being harassed. Even if they do hate us and wish we were gone.)

The images in last night’s NBC news story were disturbing. The idea of chasing out Arabs for purposes of settling all of Eretz Yisroel is reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s Lebensraum program of clearing out undesirables (Jews) so that pure German Aryans would have more ‘living space’. Please understand. I  am in no way comparing even these settlers to the Nazis of 1930s Germany. Only their policy of ridding Israel of Palestinians 

This is not the image we should be projecting to the world. The last thing Israel needs is to be seen in this inhumane light at a time of existential war. There is nothing in Halacha that says non Jews may not live in Israel. The idea that it is some sort of Mitzvah to drive them out is nothing short of a Chilul HaShem. The events of October 7^th is no excuse. It must stop

I’m tired of all the excuses and apologetics from their supporters who seem to always claim self defense. It isn’t so. At least not all the time. Supporting these settlers and the accompanying  harassment makes it seem that Jews are cruel and inhumane.

The government of Israel has said that they have no tolerance for illegal settlements and will prosecute all wrongdoing by those settlers. I hope the government follows up these words with action. If  these settlers are convicted of any crime, Israel should throw the book at them. And makes the verdict and their sentence as public as possible.