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Israeli Army Denied Soldiers Threw Gas Canister Into Hebron School. Then a Video Surfaced

Yotam Berger

Israeli Army Denied Soldiers Threw Gas Canister Into Hebron School. Then a Video Surfaced

The IDF said the army doesn't launch stun grenades or tear gas into schools, but after a video surfaced it altered its response

An Israeli soldier was filmed shooting tear gas into a Palestinian school in Hebron during school hours, despite military denials. A military source later said the soldier apparently shot in response to rocks thrown by students.

Palestinians have reported that soldiers have been shooting tear gas and stun grenades into schools, but the Israel Defense Forces has denied such incidents. Haaretz obtained a video documenting at least one such incident.

Last week, Palestinians reported to Israeli veterans' anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence an increase in the scope of tear gas launched at Hebron schools located in an area of Hebron where many schools can be found, including primary schools.

In response to a query posed by Haaretz to the military last week, the IDF spokesperson said that the army does not launch stun grenades or tear gas into schools.

"Riots take place on a weekly basis in the vicinity of schools, where rocks are thrown at forces and civilians. As a rule, no tear gas is used against schools. However, the changes in weather must be taken into account and some of the tear gas smoke might disperse with the wind in different directions," the spokesperson said. 

However, a video taken outside the Al Khalil School for Boys in Hebron refutes the IDF spokesperson's claim. The video, taken on November 18, shows an Israeli soldier throwing a canister into the school's yard, followed by tear gas rising from it. Furthermore, teachers told Haaretz that soldiers throw canisters at the school on a daily basis.

The school's superintendent keeps a box with dozens of used grenades and canisters, which he says were thrown at the school over the past couple of months. Dozens of photographs on display in the school, which teachers say have been taken since 2015, document student arrests and incidents of tear gas canisters thrown at the school.

A security source told Haaretz children throw stones from the school's facilities and added that that Israeli army has been in touch with the school's administration concerning this.

The IDF spokesperson altered his response following Haaretz's query and the recent video. He confirmed the incident, but said it is unusual and will be looked into. "Whenever stone throwing poses a danger, the forces act to disperse the riot using riot control gear and according to operational needs and regulations," the spokesperson said, adding that the incident documented in the video "will be investigated and regulations clarified."

Ron Zaidel, director of research for Breaking the Silence, said that "while thousands of Palestinian students are suffocating from tear gas, the IDF spokesperson is trying to put up a smoke screen to hide the reality on the ground from the public. But the thousands of testimonies that we have collected over the years clearly show that violence against children is an unavoidable part of the military dictatorship ruling a civilian population. When the facts are clear and known, each and every one of us must ask ourselves a simple question: Is this reality acceptable to us, or is it not?"

The Breaking the Silence testimonial collection includes a testimony by a former Nahal soldier, a branch of service in which soldiers combine active duty with work in civilian populations in Israel. In 2013, the soldier testified that he was a witness to tear gas canisters thrown at children outside of a school. Haaretz could not reach the witness for comment.

Acting on Orders, Israeli Soldiers Assaulted Journalists to Prevent Media Coverage

Acting on Orders, Israeli Soldiers Assaulted Journalists to Prevent Media Coverage

Amira Hass

Israeli soldiers beat Palestinian journalists with batons and arrested them, on their commanders’ orders, with the declared intention of disrupting their coverage of a weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum in August 2012. This was due to a policy change in handling what the army termed “serial” demonstrations, according to the case file of a Military Police investigation obtained recently by Haaretz.

During this assault, one soldier broke the hand of an Agence France-Presse photographer, Jaafar Shtayyeh, as he tried to protect his face from the soldier’s baton. At least one other photographer was wounded in the arms and legs and several cameras were broken. While Shtayyeh was curled up in pain on the sidewalk, a soldier kicked him.

All the journalists except Shtayyeh were handcuffed. All five were held under arrest for two hours in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim. When they were released, they said, a soldier videotaped them and told them, “You aren’t allowed to come to Qaddum anymore.” To Shtayyeh, he said, “If I see you in Qaddum again, I’ll arrest you.”

Part of the assault was filmed by a volunteer photographer for the B’Tselem organization, who was separated from the other journalists. The Foreign Press Association demanded an investigation of the incident.

Only in November 2016 did the military prosecution inform Shtayyeh’s attorney, Eitay Mack, that two of the soldiers involved had been put on disciplinary trial. Aner, the company commander who broke Shtayyeh’s hand, faced disciplinary charges for exceeding his authority to the point of endangering life and health. Then-Lt. Col. Roman Gofman, the battalion commander, faced disciplinary charges for violating the procedure for arresting photographers and giving batons to soldiers who weren’t trained to use them. Both were convicted and reprimanded.

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit informed Haaretz that the military prosecution also terminated Aner’s service. But Gofman still serves in the IDF and has been promoted to colonel and is the commander of the 7th Battalion.

Mack, who filed a civil suit against the state on Shtayyeh’s behalf, only received the case file recently.

The file reveals contradictions between the statements of the brigade commander, battalion commander and police representative.

Prior to the demonstration, all the security forces operating in the area set up a joint intelligence task force. The Samaria Brigade commander at the time, Col. Yoav Yarom, the brigade commander, told the Military Police investigator that the task force was part of “the preparations for a special situation, to provide a solution to a recurring problem in the area.” He then listed the participating agencies and individuals, including the Shin Bet security service, the police, the Border Police and various army officers, including himself, and referred to “anarchists” who are dealt with especially. He said he was responsible for the task force.

“We wanted the demonstration to have a low media profile, because it promotes the delegitimization of the IDF and the state,” Yarom said. But he denied ordering Gofman, the brigade commander, to arrest journalists and said he didn’t know Gofman planned to give his soldiers batons.

Gofman described holding a planning meeting before the demonstration with the police representative, Chief Superintendent Rafi, on the brigade commander’s orders. He said Rafi ordered the arrest of journalists, leftists, foreign and Israeli anarchists and stone-throwers.

During this meeting, Gofman asked why leftists and journalists should be arrested. He said Rafi responded that the intelligence task force had decided to enforce an order declaring the area a closed military zone against these groups, because “they heat up the demonstration.”

“I accepted his words as reality,” Gofman told the Military Police. “To me, he was the task force’s representative.”

The soldiers who beat and arrested the journalists said they did so on the battalion commander’s orders. 

Chief Superintendent Rafi told the Military Police that he said foreigners should be stopped to see if they are journalists, but did not say Palestinian journalists should be arrested. According to him, “A decision was made by the operations department, as per orders from the public security minister, to conduct operations in which left-wing activists and foreign anarchists, who inflame tempers, would be arrested.” This decision was made by the commander of the West Bank Division, he added.

Yarom said, “I don’t close an area to prevent coverage. Only if their presence endangers the forces do I ask them to photograph and cover somewhere else. The regular decision is that they’re allowed to photograph, and the task force didn’t change this decision.”

After being shown the B’Tselem footage, he said, “What I see is not permissible use of batons. ... In retrospect, I can say that based on what was filmed, the soldiers didn’t act according to regulations, but within the framework their commander defined.”

Yarom said that if Roman, the battalion commander, had asked him, he would naturally have permitted him to equip his soldiers with batons. But he added, “In any case, the very fact that batons were present” at the demonstration “is problematic, because it ultimately leads to a decision to use them.”

Aner, the company commander, repeatedly told Military Police investigators that Gofman, the battalion commander, had ordered him before the demonstration to arrest reporters. Once he said this was “my commanders’ orders,” adding, “One lesson of previous demonstrations was an attempt to prevent the involvement of journalists.” Asked if the journalists interfered with the soldiers’ work, he answered, “No. They were merely present in a closed military zone.”

The journalists were walking together down a street in Kafr Qaddum, nowhere near the weekly demonstration against the closure of the road to Nablus due to the expansion of the settlement of Kedumim. Kafr Qaddum residents and their supporters had begun demonstrating a year earlier, and the weekly demonstrations continue to this day.

Judging by the B’Tselem footage, there were no clashes with the army at the place and time the journalists were walking. The journalists wore flak jackets with the world “Press” on them. Yet two armored military jeeps that were driving down the road in the opposition direction from the journalists stopped, and three soldiers, including the company commander, got out and began attacking them with batons.

Omri, one of the three soldiers, admitted under questioning that the journalists didn’t throw stones, weren’t armed, didn’t run, didn’t interfere with the soldiers and didn’t photograph classified IDF operations. They simply “walked down the street toward the demonstration.”

He confirmed that journalists weren’t arrested during previous demonstrations. This time, he said, the battalion commander’s orders were to arrest anyone who violated the military closure order, including journalists, and to beat with the batons anyone who resisted arrest.

Yossi, the second soldier, initially said he ran toward a journalist who was throwing stones “and told him to sit down.” Later, he said that the journalist was only holding a stone, then changed it to, “I think I saw him with a stone.”

On August 30, 2012, a few days after the battalion commander was questioned, Captain Amichai of the Military Police concluded that the soldiers committed no crime and “their behavior was unexceptionable, since they were ordered to arrest journalists and, if necessary, if they resisted, to beat them with batons on the outer thighs.”

This sounded strange to him at first, he wrote to his superiors, “since IDF policy is not to beat/arrest journalists and/or left-wing activists who come to demonstrations that are prima facie legitimate.”

“When we got to the battalion commander, we discovered several interesting things,” he continued. “First, the battalion commander, through a situation assessment conducted by the brigade commander, was instructed to meet with an Israel Police representative before the aforesaid demonstration and coordinate expectations with him. Incidentally, the battalion commander said, the latter told him there had been a change in IDF policy on dealing with these serial demonstrations.”

The battalion commander also said the police representative told him “to instruct his soldiers to arrest any journalist/left-wing activist/anarchist who is [unclear word] of the instructions and is in a closed military zone.”

Aside from saying that Aner’s military service had been terminated, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit added, “The batons were given to some soldiers in order to reduce the use of potentially lethal materiel, while imposing restrictions on their use. Nevertheless, ultimately, more force than necessary was used while making the arrests, which violated the procedure for arresting photographers.

“The claim that the intelligence task force ordered the journalists’ arrest wasn’t supported by the investigation,” it continued. “The IDF respects freedom of the press in the West Bank. The claim that IDF soldiers try to deter journalists from doing their jobs is baseless.”

MADA, an independent Palestinian organization which promotes freedom of the press, issues monthly reports on violations of this freedom by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In its annual report, published in early February, it listed 139 physical attacks by soldiers on Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Jerusalem. These attacks included shooting sponge-tipped bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at journalists and beating them with batons.

The report also listed 38 incidents in which Israeli forces prevented journalistic coverage, 31 cases in which they confiscated equipment, 16 cases in which they damaged equipment or vehicles, and 39 cases in which they briefly arrested journalists. Altogether, it counted 376 incidents in 2017 in which the Israeli authorities infringed on Palestinian journalists’ freedom, including lengthy detentions, banning them from Jerusalem and various other tactics for disrupting their journalistic work.

Ignoring Court Case, Israel Seizes Solar Panels Powering Bedouin School in West Bank

Ignoring Court Case, Israel Seizes Solar Panels Powering Bedouin School in West Bank

Army authorities violate established procedure of waiting until High Court makes an interim decision on a petition before acting

Yotam Berger Aug 10, 2017 

The Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank seized solar panels that powered a Bedouin school and a preschool outside Jerusalem on Wednesday, even though it knew a petition against the seizure was being filed to the High Court of Justice. Indeed, the court issued a restraining order against the confiscation – an hour after the panels were carted off.

By taking the panels, the military authorities violated the established procedure of waiting until the High Court makes an interim decision on a petition before acting.

The panels stood in the Bedouin village of Abu Nuwar, located in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the large settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. Local resident Daoud Basimat sent a letter to the prosecution through attorney Alaa Mahagna, stressing that there was going to be a petition filed against the seizure of the solar panels. The prosecution acknowledged the notice and said it was being passed to the relevant officials.

Nevertheless, the state hastened to take action and confiscated the solar panels on Wednesday at about 2:30 P.M. An hour later, unaware that the panels had already been hauled away, Justice Neal Hendel issued a temporary order against any enforcement action, “Including forbidding their use, demolishing or confiscating the solar panels that are the subject of this petition unless there is a pressing security need requiring this.”

“This is not the first time that the Civil Administration takes action in contravention of the law while ignoring judicial orders, in an effort to create a fait accompli in the field,” Mahagna told Haaretz. “These are solar panels that were erected to give a basic level of electricity to the only school in the village."

“The enforcement actions reflect the Civil Administration’s approach to the Bedouin communities in the West Bank,” he continued. “What happened today reflects the real meaning of the occupation, which perceives Palestinians as nonexistent in all the territories designated to strengthen the settlement enterprise and the settlements.”

A security source stressed that the panels had been erected without a permit, adding that in fact they were erected on the ruins of other Palestinian structures that had been demolished by the administration a few weeks ago. 

After learning what had happened, Hendel told the state to submit a detailed report on the sequence of Wednesday's events, which will also address the "claimed link between the solar panels that were confiscated and the school and preschool at the site," by Thursday.

In response, the Civil Administration said that "On August 8, inspectors from the administration found unauthorized construction that included the solar panels. The next day, the panels and additional equipment that were placed at the site illegally were taken.

A short time afterwards, the Justice Ministry received a copy of the petition filed to the High Court of Justice in this regard and only later was an injunction given." The administration stressed that "the fact that a lawyer petitions the Justice Ministry does not override authorities' responsibility to enforce the law of the land."

New Palestinian documentary assaults viewers with uncensored look at last Gaza war

New Palestinian documentary assaults viewers with uncensored look at last Gaza war

In the summer of 2014, on the day that Operation Protective Edge  began, ​Mohamed Jabaly was working in the hospital in Gaza. He was filming an operation there for a movie he was making. When he heard about the outbreak of the fighting between Israel and Gaza, he asked permission to join one of the ambulance crews, without giving too much thought to it. From then until the end of the war, he and his camera were, like the paramedic team, a constant presence in the ambulance racing around Gaza for the next few weeks, rushing to help anyone they could.

The result is “Ambulance,” an hour-long documentary that has been shown in many international documentary film festivals, including the prestigious IDFA festival in Holland, and was also recently shown on Channel 8 on Israeli cable television. For Israeli viewers, a film like this offers a rare opportunity to get a more in-depth view of what went on in those days in Gaza, from a different angle. This is a direct, penetrating view that doesn’t try to soften or sanitize the difficult scenes, which haven’t been cut and edited into something that would fit into the format of a television news program.

Accompanying the ambulance crew, Jabaly reached the wounded just minutes after the bombardments and was able to film people and places that were affected even before the clouds of dust could settle, and to capture the looks of terror on the faces of those who’d just seen death pass before their eyes. Many of the scenes, therefore, are stomach-churning. This film confronts the viewer with the uncensored seething mass of blood, dust and fear that was hidden that cursed summer behind the dry headlines and often overly-sterile reports that filled the newspapers and news programs.

One day that July, Jabaly was in the ambulance when it was summoned to the Gaza beach to evacuate people who were wounded by an Israel Defense Forces bombardment. Jabaly’s camera rocks on his shoulder as he runs with the paramedic team to the beach, and there it records the terrible sight of the body of a young boy sprawled on the golden sand, then being transferred to a stretcher and rushed to the ambulance. This was one of the four children who were killed that day as the result of an IDF attack, apparently while they were playing soccer on the beach.

In another terrifying scene, the ambulance crew arrives to evacuate the wounded from a bombardment, and then comes under bombardment itself a few minutes later.

“Having lived my whole life amid this reality and in the shadow of these hardships, I wanted people to experience what it’s like to be trapped in this kind of situation, when all we want is to live normal lives,” says Jabaly, interviewed last week by email. His decision to join the ambulance crew was spontaneous, he says, adding that he had no clear expectations about what would happen.

“I knew I couldn’t just sit at home and wait for the danger to find me. Everyone who lives in Gaza went through difficult moments, but the work of the ambulance crew really beckoned to me because they are actively working to help people, and when the ambulance arrives, it always brings a feeling of hope. Saving lives and teamwork are the most basic purpose of a civilized society.”

Jabaly lets his camera immortalize the death and destruction, without getting into any verbal analysis, or putting the blame on the Israeli side, or expressing an opinion on the complicated political situation. His narration does accompany the film from time to time, but the commentary is mainly personal. “I’m not a politician. I’m just someone who lives under very difficult circumstances,” he explains. “Most of the world is blind to this human reality. So I felt it was important to try to give expression to my experiences, and to let others form their own ideas about the situation.”

He didn’t tell his family that he was accompanying the ambulance crew. “I didn’t want them to start asking what I was doing. If they knew that I was going around like that with the ambulance, they would have stopped me from doing it anymore,” he says. And he often found himself drawing confidence from the camera itself, amid the raging chaos all around. “During the war, I felt like the camera was becoming my friend. It is seeing what I am seeing, witnessing what I am witnessing, so I felt less alone and less afraid. But of course this added sense of security was all in my head, because my body and the camera could have been hit and destroyed at any time.”

But Jabaly and his camera remained unscathed during the fighting, physically at least. His psyche was another story. In the last part of the movie, the ambulance team is called upon to provide aid that isn’t strictly medical. During the intensive IDF assault on the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, for the purpose of locating and destroying Hamas tunnels many of the local residents fled from their homes. They came out to the streets in a panic, afraid to drive in their cars, and pounced on the passing ambulances, pleading with them to help them escape from the nightmarish scene.

Mohamed Jabaly, a scene from the documentary film "Ambulance." Courtesy of Hot8

Jabaly’s ambulance crew helped ferry people out of the neighborhood. They saw the massive destruction that occurred and heard the people’s repeated cries about the massacre of the residents. Even the ambulance crew, which had seen many terrible things before, broke down. “I’d seen blood and destruction before, but I’d never felt as scared as I did that day. I stood in the street and I filmed, and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Jabaly says in the movie. “People were uprooted from their homes and I was still hearing the booms. I lost my composure. I couldn’t control myself. I cried. I turned off the camera and decided to go home.”

Despite the large number of photographers and cameramen who had flocked to Gaza at the time, people watching the news around the world received only a partial picture of what was happening there in real time, says Jabaly. “The images alone don’t tell the story of what it really feels like to be in a place like that at a time like that. So although I’d never seen so many reporters in Gaza as I did then, people around the world don’t really know what happened during the 2014 war,” he says.

He attaches great importance to his film being shown on Israeli television, and hopes that many Israelis will see it. “I hope that while watching it, they’ll stop and think again and again about what war really means for people,” says Jabaly. “This wasn’t the first war, of course. I hope that people will get up and do something to stop another war from erupting.”

Secret Document Reveals Israel Expelled Gazans Right After Six-Day War

Secret Document Reveals Israel Expelled Gazans Right After Six-Day War

Israel expelled Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as collective punishment in retaliation for an attempted attack on Israeli troops, a secret Foreign Ministry document dated June 15, 1967 reveals.

The document describes a visit by Foreign Ministry officials to the office of the military governor in Gaza, and discusses a decision to expel dozens of Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai after a land mine meant to harm Israeli security forces was planted. The Foreign Ministry’s Avner Arazi, who served in the ministry’s Asian department at the time, wrote the classified document.

Dr. Guy Laron, a senior lecturer in the Hebrew University’s international relations department, told Haaretz: “I didn’t hear about this incident, but there were acts of expulsion and massacres at the end of the war. They were not part of the official history, but they happened.”

He said he had not read of this specific incident, but cited an example of the Shaked commando unit, which happened at the end of the war. “It was under the command of Benjamin Ben-Eliezer on the 10th or 11th (of June),” he said. “There is also the story of Bedouin of Rafah, which happened later, in January 1972. Thousands of Bedouin were expelled, an estimated 6,000-20,000.”

Members of Akevot, the Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, discovered the document. “What is exceptional in this story is that Foreign Ministry officials immediately write a memorandum of understanding,” Akevot executive director Lior Yavne told Haaretz. “It was not their mission. They went to sign an agreement with UNRWA. It seems that they were flustered by what they saw.”

The document describes Arazi’s visit to Gaza on June 14, days after the Six-Day War ended, in which he met with the military governor in Gaza. The officials were briefed on events in the days following the capture of Gaza. “On the 12th or 13th, a land mine exploded in the Gaza vicinity,” the document states. “The investigation found that the land mine had been laid shortly before it exploded. The tracks led to a number of homes in the Al-Tarabshe (sic) refugee camp.”

According to the document, the Israelis demanded that residents of the homes point out the people who conducted the attack. “A short time later, 110 people identifying themselves as soldiers in the Palestinian liberation army appeared, and took collective blame,” the document states.

Arazi describes the repercussions of this stand. “They did not heed pleas to identify who among them committed the act,” he recalled. “They gave them three hours to reveal the perpetrators otherwise they would all be punished – it was decided to transfer anyone who did not reply by the end of the ultimatum to Sinai and to leave them alone! It seems the punishment was carried out in the meantime. Likewise, the army blew up eight homes to where the tracks led.”

The document also describes other incidents of the army attempting to pressure the Palestinian population to turn in weapons and soldiers to the security forces.

“The government demanded of refugee camp residents in the Strip that they hand over all weapons in their possession,” the document states. “They did not respond to this appeal. Therefore, the government asked the local UNRWA representative to designate a warehouse in which weapons holders could put their weapons inside for the night without investigation or the need to be identified. This method was more effective.” It adds: “Assuming that some Egyptian soldiers were hiding in refugee camp homes, camp residents were called upon to hand over such soldiers. There has been no response.”

Laron says that there are eyewitness reports of mass expulsions from the West Bank immediately at the end of the war. “It did happen at the end of the war in the West Bank,” he said. “There was probably some organized plan, about which no documents have been released. However, there are accounts of soldiers arriving in trucks and encouraging residents to leave, and transporting them to expel them,” he added.

“Uri Avnery, in memoirs he has now published, claims that he met soldiers from the unit who said that this was their job – carrying out an organized plan meant to lead to the expulsion of West Bank residents,” Laron continued. “The commanding general, Uzi Narkiss, just before the war said that if they let us, we can kick out the Arabs from the West Bank within 48 hours. Thousands were exiled without a doubt.”

Akevot’s Livne said the testimony in the document by the Gaza governor in 1967 shows that home demolitions and expulsion served as a punishment tool in the territories by the Israel Defense Forces going back to the first days of the occupation.  Referring to the officer who spoke with ministry officials, Yavne added, “State jurists tend to deny that home demolitions are part of a punishment policy, but the testimony of Gen. Gaon illustrates the real nature of the act of demolition, which always harms those who are not involved in warfare.”

The Toxic Roots Of Jewish Terror

The Toxic Roots Of Jewish Terror

The religious Zionist's denial to categorize Jewish terror as such fans the flames of terrorism in the name of Judaism and a Jewish state.

Avirama Golan

The longer the Duma arson suspects remain in custody, the greater the pressure from their friends and families on the Shin Bet security service’s Jewish division, to the point of reckless delegitimization of the state. That unruliness is perhaps to be expected, but its full dimensions bears examination.

The people who have the most trouble understanding this are members of the religious Zionist community, including rabbis in the settlements. Most members of this community, which of course cannot imagine itself supporting murder and violent acts, are shocked and terrified by any connection between it and the hard anarchist core of the “hilltop youth.” But in fact this community includes much broader and more complex groups of adults.

This misunderstanding requires clarification for a number of reasons, starting with the demand by spokesmen and supporters of Jewish terror that they be recognized as the pure, brave and just successors of Gush Emunim.

“What happened to the religious-national public?” Elyashiv Har-Shalom goads his parents’ generation in his blog. To his mind, that generation is indifferent to the arrests and interrogations.
“Where are their teachers? Where are all those who know full well the work of protest, the blocking of busy roads with sweeping song and faith in the justness of the path?”

Har-Shalom says his camp does not consist of “wild weeds,” but rather is the result of the great education at its core.

He accuses the founders, who raised their children on the heritage of the first settlements of Sebastia and Beit Hadassah in Hebron: “Your children, your next generation, the sons of your rabbis, have been in custody for weeks in the Shin Bet basements ... they are strong, don’t worry, they received a good education, but what about you?”

Rabbi Yossi Elitzur, a co-author of “The King’s Torah,” blasts the rabbis of Samaria for saying — (“out of fear of the master”) — after protesting the arrests, that they hoped the Duma murderers would be caught. Do they? Is it their hope that “these foes from the Shin Bet will manage to destroy lives and put Jews who could not remain silent in the face of bloodshed into prison for many years”?
Could anything be clearer? On Facebook pages with names like “We want a Jewish state” or “Back to the (Temple) Mount,” independent news bulletins such as “The Jewish Voice” and movements like Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh’s Derech Chaim, which has thousands of members, the calls are no less clear. Some are even more clear, such as the statement, “We do not know who did this and it is clear it was not the arrestees, but it was certainly a mitzvah (December 3, “We want a Jewish state”), and the choruses of Kahane Lives and Lehava.

The racism and the violence take various forms, but the idea is one: a pure state of Jewish law, a kingdom of faith at any price and right now. It is inconceivable that the religious Zionist public does not see the spring that feeds these toxic roots: from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who described the restraining order issued in 2013 barring Boaz Albert from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, where he lives, as an “order against the Zionism of God”; to Rabbi Dov Lior, who claimed during a visit in support of Albert that the Israeli government is restricting Jews as the British Mandate did and to Rabbi Eliezer Melamed (“the chutzpah of summoning rabbis for questioning”), “The King’s Torah,” “Baruch Hagever” and the like.

No doubt about it, these events are opening a chasm in the religious Zionist community, but the fear of betraying the “sector” and the panic over what is being revealed dictate silence and denial, which in turn empower the supporters of Jewish terror and crown them as the new leaders of the entire public. And woe to us, silence is an admission of guilt.