Zionist Terrorism

 

Edo Konrad | Editor-in-Chief We've always known that there is deep cooperation between Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank. For years, we at +972 have published article after article documenting the ways in which settlers have physically attacked Palestinians or destroyed their properties, all while soldiers either stood idly by or dispersed Palestinians on the settlers’ behalf. But what took place a few months ago, as violence erupted across the country during Israel’s war on Gaza and crackdown in Jerusalem, illustrates how soldiers do more than simply look on during these attacks. In an explosive investigative report published by Local Call, in tandem with +972 and The Intercept, Yuval Abraham shows how, in a single day in May, militias of Israeli settlers and soldiers actively teamed up to kill four Palestinians in five villages across the West Bank. The report was staggering, even for someone like myself, who has spent years reading and writing about IDF-abetted settler violence. Photos show Israeli settlers standing near IDF soldiers as they aim and fire at Palestinians in the West Bank village of Urif, May 14, 2021. (Mazen Shehadeh) In 2018, I traveled to Urif, one of the loci of May’s settler-soldier collusion, to report on a wave of attacks that had been taking place in the Nablus area. There I met Munir, whose house had been repeatedly attacked by residents from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar — considered home to some of the country’s most radical Jewish extremists. When I met Munir, he was walking with a limp after being attacked by settlers more than a year prior. He described how over 70 settlers descended from one of Yitzhar’s outposts, opened fire at his children who were playing outside, and threw stones at his home. After being hit by a stone, Munir was caught by the settlers who then beat him with a metal rod, breaking his leg. He filed a complaint with the Israeli police, yet nothing has come of it. Palestinians, particularly those residing in the vicinity of Israeli settlements, have long lived under the fear of such violence, and they know all too well that the army does little to stop these extremists from rampaging. But as Palestinian residents told Yuval, the joint militia attacks in May seem to have inaugurated a new era of terror. And if past experience teaches us anything, there is every reason to believe that, without firm intervention or pressure on the Israeli government, this state-sponsored vigilantism will surely get worse.

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