In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian villages have become open fields for illegal Jewish settlers operating under the protection of the Israeli army. In recent weeks, organized Jewish mobs, some armed with rifles and sticks, others carrying torches, have unleashed violence across occupied Palestinian towns and villages. It is not only that Israeli soldiers stand providing cover for the illegal Jewish mobs, the army blocks Palestinian farmers from accessing their farms for the annual olive harvest.
The Jewish mob’s thuggery follows a clear pattern where settlers attack homes, burn olive groves, beat villagers and drive out farmers from their land. Multiple international eyewitness accounts and videos showed Jewish settlers descending from Jewish only colonies, escorted by soldiers firing tear-gas or live ammunition at Palestinians defending their farms. Meanwhile, Western media copies Israeli military euphemizing these attacks as “flash points” or “friction.”
Since October, the olive harvest season in Palestine, farmers were attacked at least 259 times by illegal Jewish settlers. When Palestinian civilians attempt to defend their villages, they are murdered or arrested. This includes American Palestinian citizens detained indefinitely or killed with no charges ever filed against the Jewish murderers. The violence has become so normalized government ministers openly praise the mobs as defenders of “the Land of Israel.” Jewish settlers now act as shock-troops in a slow-motion official annexation strategy, blurring the line between state and vigilante.
Under the watchful eyes of Israeli soldiers, Jewish mobs attack journalists filming the olive harvest. Refusing to intervene, the Israeli army fired steel plated rubber bullets and tear gas at the Palestinian farmers and international activists dispersing the olive pickers and empowering the Jewish mobs to cut and burn olive trees. In another arsonist attack, Zionist Youth on November 13 torched a Mosque, sprayed the walls with Jewish racist graffities, and set cars ablaze.
It is an open partnership between army and Jewish settlers under an apartheid occupation. A dual legal system where illegal Israeli Jewish settlers are governed by civilian courts, while Palestinians have little rights in military courts. The distinction is not administrative; it is what Jewish apartheid looks like.
Even the system in apartheid-era South Africa, brutal as it was, did not foster a parallel network of state-armed mobs acting with full impunity. The white regime enforced racist laws, but it did not ‘formally” organize armed white civilians attacking black townships and businesses.
According to Israeli and Palestinian human-rights groups, the Jewish impunity is systemic: 97 percent of complaints filed against Jewish vigilantes resulted in acquittals or closed without investigation. In contrast, in Israeli military courts, 96 percent of the cases against Palestinians lead to convictions. The White South African apartheid courts would have failed to reach this blatant level of racism.
Beyond direct mob violence, a parallel system of control is tightening the noose on Palestinian daily life. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, there are 877 checkpoints and roadblocks restricting the movement of 3.3 million Palestinians across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Checkpoints for the non-Jewish only natives, while the illegal Jewish settlers enjoy free movement on Israeli-only roads. These barriers are not for “security,” they operate as economic choke-points in a regime of systematic separation.
Excerpted: ‘State-Sanctioned Jewish-Mob Terror in the West Bank’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org
