"As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at innocent Arabs in
Hebron. There is no other definition than the term ‘pogrom’ to describe what I have seen.”
This quote from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came just before I returned to
Palestine two weeks ago.
In
Syria and in
Lebanon, I watched as Al Jazeera correspondents reported live from
Hebron, showing settlers burning houses and soldiers standing by and watching.
One of my first stops upon return to
Palestine was to the Salfit region in the north, quite far from
Hebron, to visit friends.
I wasn’t thinking about the settlers.
I visited a friend whose house is surrounded by the Wall, and asked how things were going.
“They,” she pointed towards the settlement behind her house, “have attacked us twice this week.”
In the middle of the night, the family had woken to the sounds of stones hitting their house.
This has happened before, but not usually twice in one week.
No settler has ever been punished for throwing stones at their house, though they have broken windows and water tanks.
I stayed in the area and woke up in the morning to the news that settlers had attacked a nearby village, spray painting racial slogans and stars of David on the village’s mosque.
I have seen stars of David painted by settlers before, mostly on the walls of Palestinian shops and homes in
Hebron, but I am still taken aback each time I see it.
Do they not remember Kristallnacht?
Or do they specifically remember Kristallnacht?
Another friend told me she had been on a bus the week before that was stopped by Israeli soldiers.
“You should turn around and go a different way,” said a soldier to the driver.
“There are settlers up ahead waiting to attack.”
So the bus turned around, went a different way, and narrowly avoided a different attack by a group of settler women gathered on the side of the road with stones.
Somehow this story is the most frustrating to me.
When settlers attack, Palestinians get punished / sent home / re-routed.
It is as though the settlers are a natural phenomenon.
They could place a sign in the road saying, “Caution: Settlers Ahead” and it would seem as natural to the soldiers as a sign saying “Caution: Storm Conditions Ahead” or “Caution: Road Curves Ahead.”
It is as though the condition of settler attacks is unpreventable.
Of course, it is easier for a soldier to re-route a busload of unarmed Palestinian people largely accustomed to occupation than to move a group of armed settlers used to getting their way.
But if the Israeli government, with the 4
th largest military in the world, wanted to control a few (or a few thousand) extremist settlers, I am confident that they could.
This is not about a natural phenomenon, an inevitable occurrence, an inability of the Israeli government to reign in their population.
It is a lack of will.
So when the prime minister of
Israel says that he is personally offended by the settler attacks, when he calls them pogroms, one wonders why the Israeli soldiers largely stood by and watched, or even accompanied the settlers on their attacks.
One wonders why the perpetrators are not in prison (unless they also attacked soldiers).
One wonders why the settlers have not been removed.
And the answer is simple: These settlers serve the interests of the Israeli government.
I am not sure the government is always thrilled when the situation gets out of control like this (and then reflects badly on Israel in international media), but in general, having a small group of right-wing extremists deflects attention from the root causes of the problem, and deflects responsibility from the government.
Indeed, many Israelis view these settlers with disgust, and think, “If only these people would move out of the
West Bank, we would have peace.”
The settler movement often retorts, “What is the difference between land we came to control in 1948 and land we came to control in 1967?”
Their conclusion (that Jews should fight for exclusive control of all the land) is quite opposite from mine, but the analysis is the same.
And this is why there are three Israeli soldiers for every Israeli settler in
Hebron.
Because if the settlers were to be removed, and “peace” did not magically appear, then people might start to ask, “Wait, is there another problem?”
People might start to realize that occupation is not defined solely by presence of settlers (
Gaza is experiencing the worst of occupation right now, though the settlers left more than three years ago).
People might start to realize that there are Palestinians inside
Israel who are treated less than equally, to say the least.
People might start to realize that half of the Palestinian population has never set foot in any part of
Palestine, and that more than two thirds are not permitted to live in their original villages.
In other words, people might get to the core of the issue.
The ideological settler movement is, in many ways, holding together the fragile house of cards that is
Israel.
It has worked for a while, but it will not work forever.
In front of this house we can add one more sign: “Caution: Collapse of Zionism Ahead.”
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P.S. While settlers are not jailed, these Israelis are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjggLhQo6w
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