Pogrom

by hilzoy

From the LATimes:

"Israel took its strongest action against Jewish settlers in nearly three years Thursday as riot police stormed a disputed building in Hebron, using tear gas and stun grenades to force out 250 young extremists bent on expanded Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

After losing a swift afternoon battle, settlers struck back into the night with gunfire and arson attacks on Palestinians in this troubled city and other parts of the West Bank, raising tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority."

The subsequent rioting sounds horrific. Here's a report from a Ha'aretz reporter:

"An innocent Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. All of
them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn't a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, "Allahu Akhbar." Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there.

The cries rain down, much like the hail of stones the masked men hurled at the Abu Sa'afan family in the house. A few seconds tick by before a group of journalists, long accustomed to witnessing these difficult moments, decide not to stand on the sidelines. They break into the home and save the lives of the people inside. The brain requires a minute or two to digest what is taking place. Women and children crying bitterly, their faces giving off an expression of horror, sensing their imminent deaths, begging the journalists to save their lives. Stones land on the roof of the home, the windows and the doors. Flames engulf the southern entrance to the home. The front yard is littered with stones thrown by the masked men. The windows are shattered and the children are frightened. All around, as if they were watching a rock concert, are hundreds of Jewish witnesses, observing the events with great interest, even offering suggestions to the Jewish wayward youth as to the most effective way to harm the family. And the police are not to be seen. Nor is the army. (...)

The home is destroyed and the fear is palpable on the faces of the children. One of the women, Jihad, is sprawled on the floor, half-unconscious. The son, who is gripping a large stick, prepares for the moment he will be forced to face the rioters. Tahana, one of the daughters, refuses to calm down. "Look at what they did to the house, look.""

Daniel Levy notes the implications for Israel and for us:

"On the Israeli side, the state long ago ceased to uphold its own laws when it comes to the coddled settler community. That community now poses a direct threat to Israel's survival as a democracy with a Jewish character, in which the rule of law is upheld. And as this week proved, the hard-line settlers have become a clear and present danger to Israel--only drastic measures will suffice. (...)

The U.S. is on paper opposed to settlement expansion. The U.S. narrative, though, has shifted. Initially settlements were characterized by the U.S. as "illegal"--that description was dropped by the Reagan Administration and never returned to. Settlements became no more than "unhelpful" and later on an "obstacle to peace"--a language which the Bush Administration has occasionally used. What the U.S. has not done is to take a firm, consistent, and unrelenting position that Israel uphold its commitment to a settlement freeze--and without such U.S. action, the Israeli cost-benefit calculation on settlement expansion vs. freeze is always skewed in favor of the former."

We have never seriously asked Israel to stop expanding its settlements. We should have, for the sake of justice, peace, the Palestinians, and Israel. A better friend to Israel, let alone the Palestinians, would have tried to stop this. We should try to stop it now.

***

Obligatory disclaimer for Israel/Palestinian threads: No one should draw any conclusions from this post about my general views on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In particular, no one should infer from the fact that I wrote about settlers behaving despicably that I do not believe that any Palestinians have done things that are equally bad. I do. I am not on either the Israeli or the Palestinian side. If I have to choose sides t all, I side with those decent people in both groups who want peace, and against those in both groups who either practice violence or engage in injustice.

Comments

[Justin]

This is really a horrible story. Given the level of violence (parts of) the settler community engages in whenever the government tries to dismantle settlements, I really worry about what could happen in the future.

Where can I find the Ha'aretz article? Or is it your translation (that possibility just occurred to me). I don't doubt its authenticity, I'm just curious to see the whole.

[Richard]

Haaretz.com.

[hilzoy]

Thanks, Richard. I had just gone to fix the post, so it's got an actual link now.

[anders]

"We have never seriously asked Israel to stop expanding its settlements"

They haven't expended them in 10 (or is it 20?) years. The population density of existing ones has increased, and Israelis have legally purchased land from Palestinian sellers, but no expansion.

The reason WHY people think that Israel is "expanding its settlements" is worth considerable examination. But it won't get any.

[Mike Schilling]

They haven't expended them in 10 (or is it 20?) years.

Someone needs to explain this to Ehud Barak and Condi Rice, who seem to think otherwise. But that's a minor point. The main one is that, just as "support the troops" was perverted to mean "support the war in Iraq unquestioningly", "support Israel's right to exist" has somehow come to mean Liebermanesque denial that the occupation of the West Bank is untenable. It's been obvious for a long time now that there are only three possible outcomes if it's continued:

1. Military suppression of the Palestinians, forever.
2. Expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank.
3. Citizenship for all Palestinians, which means accepting that Israel has become a minority Jewish state.

1 isn't going to work; the only question is how horrific the result will be when it breaks down. 2 would be a crime against humanity. 3 is the opposite of the goal of the occupation. Yet the "supporters" of the occupation continue on, as if they expect a miracle of some sort.

[Hartmut]

And now consider that Netanyahu is likely to be in charge soon once more (Berlusconi-like but without the humanity*). :-(

*add " " if necessary

[Svensker]

We won't have any peace settlement in the Middle East until people no longer have to add caveats and disclaimers to their statements, as in your last paragraph.

[hilzoy]

nders: "They haven't expended them in 10 (or is it 20?) years."

Really? See here, here, here, and here for the first few examples I found.

[Jay C]

@ anders:

The reason WHY people think that Israel is "expanding its settlements" is worth considerable examination. But it won't get any.

Then why don't YOU "examine" it, and enlighten us all?

[Anne E]

"Israelis have legally purchased land from Palestinian sellers"

Given the extreme economic pressure on West Bank Palestinians, these sales should not be presumed to be voluntary in any real sense.

Plus, here's a link from Andrew Sullivan which mentions a case in which the Palestinians involved deny they ever consented to the "sale" and an Israeli court agees with them (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/face-of-the--24.html).

[serge]

When will this madness between the Israelis and the Palestinians end? Only when this country...ours, the United States, land of the free and home of the brave, forces Israel to release stolen territory and prosecute violators of the peace.

Until they can show such good faith to the Palestinians that an honest and true agreement can be reached, nothing will happen. Until such time, neither side can trust the other. The blame is certainly NOT ONLY the Palestinians. Israel must answer for decades of stupid policies.

[jean]

The abused become abusers. The oppressed become oppressors. This makes me crazy. It's like the Holocaust never happened.

These two peoples are so mired in their entwined lives they will never see a way out. It has to come from outside.

We've all become mired in our current messes and there may be no political capital to spend for these people in the short term.

[Bernard Yomtov]

This kind of incident makes me despair.

[hilzoy]

Bernard: me too. As, on the other side, did the time when the Palestinians stabbed the Israeli policeman and threw him out the window. (Iirc.) In both cases I thought: God, how do you make peace after this?

On the other hand, Mozambique made peace after much, much worse, as did South Africa. I would never have bet on either, but they did happen.

[Gary Farber]

"Then why don't YOU 'examine' it, and enlighten us all?"

How about not? This is a recipe for a pointless argument, in which the writer engages in tendentious semantics, and is rightfully tromped upon with the facts. It's not an argument worth having. Let's take it as a given that West Bank settlements have been "thickened" and "expanded," condemn that, and move on.

"The blame is certainly NOT ONLY the Palestinians."

I fail to observe anyone in this thread having argued otherwise. Nice straw.

[Gary Farber]

"These two peoples are so mired in their entwined lives they will never see a way out."

Neither of these two peoples is remotely homogenous, or of particularly homogenous political views, or views towards the other people. Generalizing in this highly distorted fashion is extremely unhelpful. Try talking about specific factions and people, if you want to talk about the actual situation.

[Nell]

"The blame is certainly NOT ONLY the Palestinians."

Gary: I fail to observe anyone in this thread having argued otherwise.

How about anders? It's fair to assume that the first point was aimed at him.

[Gary Farber]

"How about anders? It's fair to assume that the first point was aimed at him."

Consider me corrected, and absent-minded. Thanks.

[John Spragge]

I think two things need saying here:

1) This happens routinely
You only heard about this one. You probably haven't heard about the ongoing violence of the settlement and (illegal) outpost of Maon against the villagers of At-Tuwani in the Hebron hills.

2) Respect Jewish voices
I think that when a respected Jewish journalist with strong ties to Israel condemns these settler extremists in the strongest terms, we ought to respect that, and by respect I mean accept it as evidence that we can discuss these issues without having our opinions takes as disrespectful of Israel or Jewish people.