The silent West Bank settlers are more than complicit in violence against Palestinians

JVL Introduction

Zvi Bar’el is the Middle Eastern affairs analyst for Haaretz Newspaper, a regular columnist and a member of the editorial board.

He is known for his sober intellectual analysis so this bitterly cynical description of the reality of settler rule on the West Bank, and why it won’t change, is a bit of a wake-up call.

Ha’aretz’s headline says it all: “The silent West Bank settlers are more than complicit in violence against Palestinians. ”

Bar’el takes issue with the outgoing commander of the army’s Central Command, Major General Fuchs who, in an otherwise commendable speech, distinguished between the militant, nationalist pogromists and the vast majority of residents in the West Bank who, he believes, are silent “law-abiding citizens”.

Not at all, rages Bar’el.

“This silence grants support and encouragement to nationalist crime and builds up its representatives as “the people’s elected representatives.” It also conceals the dangerous lie at the heart of the distinction between the lawbreaking minority and the normative majority, a lie meant to hide the fact that the settlements – all of them – are illegal. They are gross violations of international law. “

His fierce criticism is even more remarkable because Haaretz itself published an editorial praising the very speech that Bar’el is so critical of – also posted below.

RK

This article was originally published by Haaretz on Tue 9 Jul 2024. Read the original here.