In the midst of an existential crisis deepening as a result of the decision by Netanyahu to launch a war against Iran, Haaretz, an Israeli daily national newspaper, is sharpening its focus on the disastrous effects of an out-of-control government in systematic violation of international law. Gideon Levy posted an article presenting a horrifying picture of the plight facing Palestinians in the West Bank, which the Netanyahu regime is annexing, one depopulated village at a time.
His March 7 column focuses on the plight of villagers in occupied territories, threatened by stray missile strikes from Iran and violent goon squads of rampaging settler youth. He writes of one case in which settlers beat a woman and set her tent on fire. When one of the thugs was confronted by a villager, who told him he was forbidden to be there due to a court order, he responded, “For me, there is no law and no court. No law.”
A second article exposes the support for such lawlessness which has emboldened the murderous settlers. Idan Yaron, a sociologist, writes of the evolution from “random” attacks to organized murderous assaults on Palestinians in “Centralized, Coordinated, Brazen: The Dangerous Transformation of the Hilltop Youth.” The recent pattern of lawless targeting of Palestinians unwilling to abandon their land reflects a shift to an “amplified campaign steeped in hatred, killing and destruction.”
He then lets readers in on a secret: “Contrary to common perception, the so-called hilltop and farm youth never operated as an unruly mob. Their activity was always grounded in a coherent ideology, not random hooliganism. Nor was it uncontrolled. They did not function as an anonymous crowd without responsible parties.”
The “vacuum on the ground” in which they operate exists because the “security and law enforcement authorities turn a blind eye to violence by hilltop and farm youth....” He concludes that this has strengthened the gangs, and will have “consequences” in the future. What is left unsaid is that this “blind eye” reflects the intent of the Greater Israel fanatics in the government, centered around government ministers and war criminals Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
In reality, that “future” is already here, resulting in the “blindness” of the majority of Israelis to the genocidal treatment of the Palestinians by the Netanyahu regime.
