(NY1 reports on Wednesday’s protest outside the baseball commissioner’s office)
Jews Against the Occupation’s Aaron Levitt writes in Electronic Intifada about how the Hebron settlers should be considered terrorists, and the work on the Hebron Fund is supporting terrorism:
I have witnessed this behavior by men and women, boys and girls, from pre-school-aged children to middle-aged adults. I was myself assaulted, on Shabbat, by a group of six teenage settlers, when I came between them and their intended victim, an elderly Palestinian woman who also happened to be the proud mother of a US Navy fighter pilot (the picture of her son standing by his plane was prominently displayed on her living room wall). The settler youths then turned to attack my companion, a young Scandinavian woman who was videotaping the original assault. I have heard and read numerous, credible reports of far worse violence than I personally experienced from other human rights observers, who were in the area for different and/or longer periods.
The Hebron settlers engage in this violence for the express purpose of driving out Palestinian families from Tel Rumeida, site of the Cave of Machpelah, or Cave of the Patriarchs, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims. Settler leaders have said as much in at least one published interview, and a young man from the Beit Hadassah settlement confirmed it to my face in September 2006. The settlers’ efforts have been remarkably successful: of more than 600 Palestinian families originally living in the neighborhood, probably less than 100 remained when I was last there in 2008. If the settlers continue to receive free reign, and full funding, we may soon add a new chapter of completed ethnic cleansing to the troubled history of this ancient city.
According to the US Code, Title 22, Chapter 38, S 2656f, our country defines terrorism as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents." The Hebron settlers’ violence is certainly premeditated. It is, by their own admission, politically motivated. It is perpetrated solely against noncombatant targets (overwhelmingly children), and it is obviously the work of a subnational group — the settlers themselves.
The business of the Hebron settlers is terrorism, pure and simple; not quasi-terrorism, crypto-terrorism, neo-terrorism, potential terrorism, or something akin to terrorism, but the very thing itself. And the business of the Hebron Fund is funding terrorism.
Levitt ends, "no American team, no American business, and no American individual should be providing material support for terrorism, or assisting those who provide such support. Unless and until the Mets reverse their terribly ill-considered decision to host this event, that is precisely what they have chosen to do."
This is the way to say it: terrorism, plain and simple.
I spent 1 day in Hebron during the Summer (spent the afternoon with ‘Breaking the Silence’) and I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever felt more ashamed to identify myself as a Jew. We got back to Jerusalem in the evening and we just started crying and despairing at an awful situation. I just cannot believe that anybody could support the Hebron settlers. :(
Danielf90, I had the same experience when I first visited Hebron in 2005. I think anyone who want to defend Israel needs to go there to see what they’re defending.
When IDF soldiers themselves admit that most of their work is protecting palestinians from nutjob settlers, there’s no way that anybody in their right mind can defend it.
FYI, it was the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in the UK that took us to Hebron – oh how different the US and UK organised Jewish orgs are….
Not to worry, Witty will pick up the slack from within his gated USA community protected by
Mooser’s “welfare cheating”cops and/or US Army grunts.
Calling THE settlers terrorists, is equivalent to calling THE Palestinians terrorists.
Both are misrepresentative in their generalizations.
Its this crap that hurts the BDS movement, as much as a more precise protest AND dialog on Torah, would be needed and likely effective at protecting Palestinians from the hooligans, and from the promotion of hooliganism by a FEW rabbis.
More specifically, WHEN the West Bank becomes recognized as Palestine, and those settlers that chose to remain as Palestinian citizens do so, it will make their lives unsafe in the invocation of GENERALIZED hatred.
I can understand (and object) when ignorant people spread hateful prejudices in a generalization to protect themselves in some tangible way.
It is a great tragedy when dissent speaks in hateful language, spreading hatred by that, in the effort to prevent hatred.
Its THE generalization that it the carelessness. The carelessness of negligent journalism (propagandistic rather than informative), and the carelessness of “non-violent” movements that betray their name.
Calling THE settlers terrorists, is equivalent to calling THE Palestinians terrorists.
No it is not, because every adult colonist is an armed robber. They succeed in preventing Palestinian landowners from reestablishing control over their property with the threat of death. The organization and systematization of this behavior certainly constitutes terrorism. This activity is not only condoned but supported and sponsored by elements of the Israeli government, thus qualifying it as state-sponsored terrorism.
Still not seeing any reports of this from the MSM.