This is the original Jewish paramilitary, Hashomer (“guard”/”guardian” in Hebrew), founded in Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century.
(Photo credit: Jewish Agency)
And these are the Israeli self-styled “New Guardians”, the HaShomer HaChadash, illegally entering land belonging to a Palestinian family in the South Hebron hills, in the West Bank, on 24 June, 2011:
You can see their logo clearly on this vehicle here, below:
According to the mission statement on their website, HaShomer HaChadash was founded to: “Help maintain Jewish land ownership in the open areas of the Galilee and the Negev.”
So what are these “guardians” doing in the South Hebron Hills in occupied Palestinian territory?
Writing in +972 Magazine in March, Yossi Gurvitz, revealed that HaShomer HaChadash (HH) “received a quiet nod from the IDF. The latter is so impressed with the goals of HH, it permits dozens of its volunteers to defer their military service for a year, so they can be indoctrinated by the organization. Such indoctrination includes ‘understanding the value of land,’ horse-riding lessons, theory lessons about ‘minorities in Israel, security and law enforcement,’ the herding of cattle and sheep, welding, carpentry, construction and mechanics.” Also in March, Daniel Argo wrote about The new trend – right-wing militias funded by the state, for the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity website.
He discovered that the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee had transferred 15 million NIS ($4.4 million) to these new ‘guardians’. You can watch a video clip in Hebrew here where the Channel Two military affairs reporter, Ronnie Daniel, extols their virtues and praises Minister Silvan Shalom from the Likud party for supporting them. While Palestinian refugees are denied their right of return, the Ministry is heavily investing in Judaizing the Negev and Galilee, and in 2010 launched an ‘Absorption programme’ for 1,000 Jews from the United States to settle in Galilee: “The plan includes providing incentives in housing, education, medical insurance, employment, etc.”
Guy, an activist with Ta’ayush, made the video above. He obtained this background information on the 24 June incident from the 2008 Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) annual report: “The Hushiya family owns lands between the settlement of Susya and the Mitzpeh Yair outpost, in the South Hebron Hills. Starting in 2000, the family found that from time to time they were prevented from accessing their lands by army-backed violent attacks of settlers. As time went on, access became increasingly difficult. At one point, some of the family members were shot at and one person has never fully recovered. In 2007, a settler from Susya named Moshe Deutsch, who is known for his violent conduct (and also known for cursing RHR staff and volunteers as ‘Nazis,’ ‘Satan,’ etc.) began to plant hundreds of grape vines across the road from the Susya settlement on part of a 110-dunam plot belonging to the family. He began to plow and otherwise prepare additional lands for cultivation. The family turned to RHR.”
As Rabbi Arik Ascherman writes below a Facebook album of images,
Members of the Hushiya family began working lands today that they hadn’t been able to access since 2007, when the settler Moshe Deutsch of Susya took them over. However, the law was flouted by Israeli soldiers, and another bite was taken out of our landmark 2006 High Court victory… it was only in 2007 that the Legal Advisor for the Occupied Territories ruled that this was Palestinian land and that the Yehuda Brigade (Hebron area) commander had to close the area to Israelis and allow the family access to their lands. Even when he did so, he reserved judgment on a section of the land upon which Deutsch had already planted a vineyard. Finally, a ruling was issued that this was Palestinian land and Deutsch was given time to remove the fence and vines himself, allowing him to replant elsewhere. Rather than accept the decision and recognize that he was flouting the Torah’s prohibitions against trespassing and theft, he chose to counter sue. Finally, the army removed the fence and the vines in early April. However, the area was declared closed to everybody, including the owners… Jamil, one of the heads of the family, told the District Coordination Office (DCO) that they would enter today (Friday June 24th). The officer Nabil said that he preferred that they wait a week. However, according to the terms of Rabbis For Human Rights’ 2006 High Court Victory with ACRI and 5 local councils, the army can only regulate when Palestinians enter their land in very limited circumstances, when there is no other way to protect settlers… Suddenly, there were four or five settlers, including one of their “field commanders,” Avidan. Soon after there were tens. Even as we called the DCO, soldiers showed up. However, they stood by as the settlers violated the orders keeping them off the land and began to shout, harass and interfere with the work. I told the soldiers time after time. “There is an order keeping Israelis out – both them and us. Enforce it.” They didn’t, and finally we had to enter the closed area to protect the Palestinians. After a period of some 45 minutes, Avidan called his troops away. He apparently had gotten what he wanted. (Some of the settlers continued to harass and curse and shout filthy things at us.). At some point they punctured all four tires of our friend and B’Tselem field worker Nasser Nawajeh. Now, the perhaps most serious thing occurred. The army ordered the Palestinians off the land…
In Guy’s video, from 1:32, you can see Avidan, the ‘field commander’ of the HaShomer HaChadash. He is the one with the long hair, beard and a hat. Guy said “HaShomer HaChadash had at least two vehicles in the area, with their stickers on them; I saw them a few times. On the 24th of June, Avidan Hanania came with two more men in one of the vehicles. One of them from Havat Ma’on, which is home to the most violent people even in this area, is the one that punctured and blew up the tires of Nasser Nawajeh.”. (You can watch the video of them puncturing the tires here).
In the first video, you can see Rabbi Arik Ascherman trying to explain that the Jewish religion is about justice, and not only for Jews. He even says that he is willing to teach them the Torah. Guy says they understood that the HaShomer men called more settlers to come, and adds that in response “each of us called the police several times, but it took them years to come. We told the soldiers several times that Israelis are forbidden to enter the land. But they wouldn’t listen. Arik told Avidan he is not allowed to be on that land. I called our lawyer to inform her of the situation – that settlers had entered the land and the army have not implemented the order. I also told her that the confrontation had started to get violent and it had become dangerous.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an entry under the ‘Modern History/Zionism’ section of its website entitled, From Hashomer to the Israel Defense Forces: Armed Jewish Defense in Palestine. The Jewish paramilitary organization Hashomer in Palestine was the precursor to the Haganah, and thus the IDF. In a chapter on Palestinians peasant resistance to Zionism in Blaming the Victims, Rashid Khalidi explains that the formal establishment of the Hashomer organization in 1909
was a culmination of a process which had been going on for several years, and which also fell under the rubric of ‘the conquest of labour’, whereby Jewish immigrants of the second ’aliya had gradually been taking over duties as armed watchmen at Jewish settlements, replacing the Arabs who had formerly performed these duties. In doing so, they were taking on the defense of newly acquired land from its dispossessed former cultivators, who firmly believed they still had rights to it: in microcosm, this was the essence of the conflict in Palestine.
The Israeli state will not guard these “guards” because it funds and promotes them based on an exclusionary-racist Zionist ideology, for which the “Green Line” is invisible: all land is Jewish land. Israeli citizens cannot continue to disavow this problem of ideological settlers when it is clear they are an arm of the state. In the meantime, it is left to peaceful Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups to stand with Palestinian popular and individual resistance against these dangerous thugs.
Thanks to Guy and Ofer
