Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In the West Bank of Israeli Occupied Palestine, far-far right settlers have formed paramilitary groups to torment native Palestinians, with the blessing of the Israeli military, Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezelal Smotrich. Their aim is to drive them out so Israel can formally annex the West Bank, in a brazen violation of sovereignty and International Law.
For context, remember that before PM Benjamin Netanyahu tapped those two men for cabinet positions, their activities and standing were the same as convicted felon Donald Trump’s Proud Boys in the US – thugs operating on the fringes of society. Netanyahu formed the most far rightwing government in Israel’s history in 2022, because he needed them to help form a government. So he dignified and legitimized them and their phony spiritual agenda in the name of Zionist imperialism. The coalition brought 14 seats from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, and six seats from Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party. (The picture captures Ben Gvir picking his nose, while Smotrich exudes a look of Trumpian smugness and self-satisfaction.)
Trump’s appointment of Rev-Gov Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel signaled his approval of all the far-right, uber-Zionist goals of the Netanyahu government. Trump’s intent was not to solidify his right-wing Jewish support, but that of Evangelical Christian Zionists. Previously, Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used their power to restrain the politically suicidal instincts of the Likud Party. There could not have been a more counterproductive choice than Huckabee for this sensitive position, at such a crucial time in history. This Christian Zionist, evangelical fanatic “could not have been a worse choice,” according to former US Ambassador to Jamaica and deputy chief of mission in Israel, Luis Moreno.
Rightwing settlers have acted with escalating impunity, as the Israeli army has ignored the terrorism the settlers perpetrate. Although a battalion was allegedly dispatched from the Lebanon front,their custom has often been to stand by and observe, but not interfere with settler violence. The campaign escalated into more than 20 settler attacks, which wounded 11 Palestinians on the weekend of March 21, while Israeli police have not detained or arrested any suspects. In Fandaqumiya and Silat al-Dhahr, villages between Nablus and Jenin, settlers started fires in buildings and vehicles during the spree. They also used pepper spray in unprovoked attacks against West Bank residents.
Other towns and villages targeted were Qaryut, near Ramallah, and Sebastia, near Nablus. The pretext was an auto accident in which an 18-year-old settler, Yehuda Shmuel Sherman, from the Alon Moreh settlement, was killed on an ATV “patrol” with his brother Daniel near the Givat Assaf junction. Israeli settlers spray-painted “Avenge Yehuda” graffiti, in Jalud, confirming that this violence was in retaliation for Sherman’s death. It’s like when US mobster John Gotti tortured and murdered his neighbor, who had accidentally backed his car into Gotti’s young son who had ridden by on a bike without looking where he was going. Israeli settlers are now permitted by Ben Gvir and the Israeli military to become gangsters with the blessing of the state. Ben Gvir has authority over the police, but issued no statement about the attacks on Palestinians, fueling the perception of official backing for the violence.
The Sherman Brothers were on “patrol” in an area that the IDF declared “off limits” to Israelis. The police investigation declared it to be an accident, but settlers, backed by the army, termed it a ramming attack, and settlement leaders, including far-right activist Elisha Yered, demanded retaliation. Yered issued a call for reprisals on Route 60, the main highway used by Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. His X posts said, “We’re out to ensure the enemy does not continue to travel freely on the roads and endanger us all;” and “Silence is filth. It is forbidden to stay at home.”
In response, West Bank settlers torched Palestinian homes, vehicles and other property. The family of Samer al-Amar on the edge of Deir al-Hatab had to escape to their roof to avoid being burned to death by Molotov cocktail fires inside their destroyed home. Elsewhere, people were beaten by settler gangs near Ramallah and Nablus, and settlers threw stones at an ambulance dispatched to tend to the wounded.
Israeli West Bank Barrier – North east of Meitar. Public Domain. Via Picryl
Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh of Hadash-Ta’al called the events a “pogrom” saying on X, “Settlers carried out an expansive pogrom lasting more than six hours, harming more than 14 villages, attacking dozens of Palestinians, and not one of them was arrested.” He added, “If the army wanted to stop settler terrorism, it would be able to do so within days. What is happening across the West Bank is not an accident, it is a policy of terrorism and ethnic cleansing, with the backing of the government and the sponsorship of the army.”
It was an auto accident, in which no fault has been established by the police; but it has been positioned as a deliberate ramming attack by Likud forces as a pretext for driving native Palestinians out of their historic homes, to facilitate annexation. With the blessing of Trump, Huckabee and the American Christian Zionist movement, the move for annexation under Netanyahu has become more ferocious and brazen.
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