The purpose of settler terrorism
JVL Introduction
IN an extraordinary development last week, seven prominent American-Jewish organizations urged Israeli officials to condemn “the ongoing terrorism and political violence committed by Jewish Israeli extremists in the West Bank against Palestinians, Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”
These are mainstream organisations: the Anti-Defamation League, Central Conference of American Rabbis, National Council of Jewish Women, Rabbinical Assembly, Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
The violence is out of control.
In this report on settler terrorism here Edo Konrad, editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine, interviews Daniel Roth, a co-founder of Solidarity of Nations — Achvat Amim, a movement-building platform that directly engages with the reality on the ground in Israel-Palestine.
It explores the nature and extent of the violence, army and government collusion, the purpose of settler violence, and what activists can and should be doing to protect themselves.
It is also clear that this became a story because Israeli Jews were attacked. As Roth says: “Palestinians experience this kind of violence day in and day out in the occupied territories, both from settlers and the army. It’s systemic top to bottom.”
This article was originally published by the Landline (+972's weekly newsletter) on Fri 28 Jan 2022. Read the original here.
The purpose of settler terrorism
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I am reliably informed that there has not been even a squeak from the BoD, an organisation which claims to speak for all Jews in the UK. Needless to say, BoD does not speak for me. Has the JC reported anything? Probably not, although admit to not actually buying it myself.
It takes huge courage to stand up to oppression – in awe of those (Palestinians, Israelis, Ecumenical Accompaniers, etc) who have that courage and keep on trying.
It seems to me that the people on the ground defying settler terrorism will be helped most effectively by us all doing our best to make their voices heard here. It’s none too easy to avoid being silenced here – however, there are small local initiatives which may make at least some positive difference.
Over the last 25 years or so, for example, my faith group has run a Palestinian goods stall to support their battered economy; contributed to the funding of Palestinian schools; and provided a venue and facilitators helping various activist groups – Jewish and non-Jewish – which want to tell their stories about non-violent resistance to oppression to wider audiences. We can’t kid ourselves these efforts have made a lot of difference but they must surely have had some benefit, at least for some individuals.
I am involved in an on-going argument with Jack Sigman, Buckingham Institute for Genocide Studies, USA on an Academic blog here in GB who claims that JVL just makes excuses for Palestinian violence against Jews in Israel & encourages more anti-Semitism. A particularly nasty piece of work.
Link to film and discussion, showing how debate about the nature of the occupation and inequality of rights and freedoms is shut down.
https://youtu.be/iJe0TKkticM
Stephen Richards
I have recently had to fend off some nasty attacks on Twitter from the supporters of Israel, some of whom are overtly racist – for example they say that no-one can expect Jews to live among Arabs, and that I must be antisemitic to think otherwise. I’d like to say that such attacks don’t hurt, but they do, and I have kept away from Twitter for a couple of months because of them. It’s clear to me that the intensity of these people’s anger reflects the extent to which they know that Israel is in the wrong, but saying this doesn’t make these exchanges any less bruising. One thing that has helped is listening to Labi Siffre’s Something Inside So Strong, which he sang at the celebrations for Nelson Mandela’s birthday and which could equally serve as an anthem for the Palestinian cause. The message is that when a cause is just it will be recognized as such and will ultimately triumph, no matter what wrongs are done and what obstacles are placed in its way.
Although it is hard to keep reading these accounts of misrule, hatred, blind racism, cruelty, dogma etc. nevertheless thank you for keeping me informed, although no longer young I would like to live to see the beginning of a civilised relationship between Israel and her neighbours the Palestinians, who would not I hear you say.