A Deeply Disturbing End to an Often Great
Series of Holidays
Yesterday was Shemini Atzeret here in Israel – and also outside of Israel.
But in Israel Shemini Atzeret and Simchat
Torah coincide – and it is a day filled with both the solemnity of Geshem and
Yizkor and the jubilation of finishing and beginning the cycle of Torah –
dancing around with our Torahs, singing songs. . .
Outside of Israel these are 2 separate days because of ancient uncertainty as to when the new moon would be seen and therefore what is the right day for the observance – so it became customary to observe extra days of Festivals outside the Land of Israel. (Other factors were involved, too.)
This was my first time experiencing “the package deal” – and it was beautiful and special.
But I was disturbed and angry to read this morning about terrible things that happened in the West Bank – on the holiday.
The Jerusalem Post reported
“At least five were injured as 60 Israeli
settlers and 30 Palestinians threw rocks in the South Hebron Hills.
Three Israelis and at least two Palestinians, including a three-year-old suffering moderate head trauma, were injured on Tuesday as approximately 60 West Bank settlers threw rocks towards Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, Israeli media reported.
According to reports, around 30 Palestinians fought back when the settlers caused harm to cars and home windows.
A young Palestinian child suffered trauma after being hit by a stone to his head. He was transferred into Israel and is being hospitalized in Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva with moderate injuries, Ynet reported on Wednesday.
Footage also surfaced of IDF commander Maj. Maor Moshe violently pushing a Palestinian during the clashes on Tuesday. Moshe is the same commander who was reprimanded by the IDF for the violent response to a left-wing protest in the South Hebron Hills region last week.
Meretz MK Gaby Lasky heavily condemned the violence in the West Bank, calling it the “worst incident of settler violence against Palestinians in years.”
Lasky also contacted Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev and deputy minister Yoav Segalovitz to investigate why Israel Police officers and IDF soldiers at the scene did not attempt to prevent the violent altercation from occurring.
Lasky stated that those who do not “immediately arrest the settlers involved, lend a hand to hate crimes and violation of the rule of law.”
The first comment that I saw to the Jerusalem Post article
said “I
find it hard to believe that Jewish residents of the South Hebron Hills, who
are predominately Orthodox Jews, would initiate a rock-throwing clash on
Tuesday, which was a Jewish holiday on which such activities are prohibited
regardless of who is being targeted by the rock-throwing.”
That, my friends, is the nub of what is deeply disturbing that has happened and is happening in the State of Israel.
After patting ourselves on the back or asking for the world to be understanding of us because of the many ways that we have suffered throughout history – including but not limited to the Holoaust -- and after crying “anti-Semitism” when there is and when there isn’t Anti-Semitism – and after bragging that we have the world’s most moral army for a generation or two – we need to face facts.
This IS a great country – and a lot of great things happen here for a lot of people – but there is a great deal of immorality and injustice done in our name – whether by the IDF or the Police or the settlers or other murderous vigilantes.
On a holiday on which the Jewish people in Israel are supposed to be celebrating Torah Torah Torah and its values, dozens of “us” participated in a pogrom – yes that’s what it was. Going from house to house – INTO some of the houses, torching cars, tossing cars – under the watchful eyes of IDF and police making sure things didn’t get too out of hand.
Remember Kristallnacht.
But remember also Simchat Torah of Sticks and Stones and Burning.
This is not an isolated event. This has been going on in this area and other areas for months – for years.
From Haaretz’s account of the “festivities”
–
Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli military fired tear gas and
sound grenades at them, but not the settlers. The army declined to respond to
the allegations.
The injured boy, Mohammad Bakr Hussein, was
allegedly struck in the head by a rock hurled by an Israeli settler as he slept
in his house in al-Mufaqara. Hussein was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in
Beersheba in moderate condition, a hospital spokesperson said.
Some 16 Palestinian cars were also damaged by settler stone-throwing, including one flipped entirely on its side. Houses were damaged, and a water tank punctured, said Oriel Eisner, 30, a left-wing Israeli-American activist.
“This was the worst attack we’ve seen for years. There isn’t a house they didn’t smash up,” said Palestinian resident Mahmoud Hussein, the boy’s grandfather.
According to local resident Basil al-Adra, the clashes erupted after settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd. Palestinians arrived on the scene to push back the settlers, prompting many more to arrive from other outposts in the area.
“It must have been around 100 settlers, from all the outposts near al-Mufaqara. They smashed windows, punctured car tires, entered homes. And they injured a child as they hurled stones into his home,” said al-Adra, who was present at the scene.
“We don’t even feel safe in our own homes anymore,” al-Adra added.
Assault and vandalism by settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank are commonly referred to as “price tag” attacks. Perpetrators say thar they are retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies seen as hostile to the settler movement.
Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual, with the vast majority of charges in such cases being dropped.
Hebron Hills council head Yochai Damari said in a statement that the Israelis who had engaged in the clashes were “guests, not [local] residents, who say stones were thrown at them.”
“Our way is not violence. Not against soldiers and not against Arabs,” Damari said. He added that Palestinians had been known to provoke clashes through “rioting and collaborating with anarchists.”
According to Damari, Palestinians also threw stones at the car of local Israeli private security guard who works in the nearby outpost of Havat Maon.
Smashed windows and a flipped over car, in what Palestinians say was an assault by dozens of masked settlers from a nearby Israeli outpost, on Tuesday, September 28, 2021. (Courtesy)
Once Eisner got word of the incident on Tuesday afternoon, he immediately called the police, who arrived about 45 minutes to an hour later, he said. Eisner, al-Adra and Hussein attested that they had seen a masked settler wield a gun and fire live ammunition into the air.
The incident sparked condemnation by left-wing Israeli parliamentarians.
“The lords of the land, backed by the occupation army and with the support of the occupation government, carry out daily terrorism on Palestinian residents,” wrote Joint List MK Aida Touma-Suleiman on Twitter.
Susan and I have become involved with an organization called Standing Together – Omdim B’Yachad.
We have marched with them at various times for various purposes.
This Saturday they will be bringing people to South Hebron Hills to stand with the Arab Palestinians there who are victims of violence over and over and over.
Saturday isn’t a day when I would ordinarily get on a bus and go to a protest.
And I don’t think I’m going THIS Saturday.
But my heart will be there.
And my body might need to go some other
time.
You know that Abraham Joshua Heschel was famously
quoted as saying that when he marched with Dr. King, it felt as if “his legs
were praying.” And I’m pretty sure that my
religious and cultural hero wouldn’t have ridden a bus on Shabbes and said that
it felt like praying. Yet that was the
1960s – and this is over 50 years later – and there is deep injustice here in
Israel (or in the West Bank – an area I prefer NOT to call Israel – and the
perpetrators prefer to call Judea and Samaria).
You can get made at “the Squad” for pointing their fingers at you and me unfairly.
But if you haven’t examined what the hell is going on in your name here, you’d better start paying attention.
