Earlier today Adam posted the stark video from the settler attacks last Friday on demonstrators protesting theft of Palestinian lands at the Anatot settlement in occupied Palestine (a version with English subtitles is above). Over the weekend I spoke with one of the Israel activists who was targeted in the attacks. The activist declined to be identified and provided this insight.
We have never seen anything like this till now. Mostly secular settlers working with the police, and the police on duty did nothing. Some of these settlers were off duty police officers. At one point, settlers beat a female Israeli activist in a field. And when they were done the policeman on duty went over and said, "So, you have fallen down, let me help you up." The settlers were not scared at all. They were not covering their faces.
It is like a Pandora’s box has been opened. Yes, they were targeting Palestinians, but this is also an inner Israeli conflict. It is an internalized conflict. The settlers feel very protected. If there is going to be a civil war inside Israel, these are the new fronts.
Richard Silverstein has a post up with reports that 70 percent of the Anatot settlers are police officers...
Of course the settlers feel protected. The machine of the Israeli state is their machine . If they wanted to be ignored and powerless they’d live in the Galilee or the Negev.
Exactly. I noted elsewhere that this behavior has been happening since 1947. If the state didn’t want this to happen it would stop the settlers but since the settlers are merely behaving consistently with the logical conclusion of zionist policy…..
I do not think this is a good development. It’s not good to feel smug, but if the Israelis insist on meeting my expectations of so many years, what can I do? Still, it’s not a nice feeling.
Yes, I know Richard, if I didn’t feel that way about Zionism, none of this would be happening. Yes, “eee” and the rest, none of this is really happening.
Oh, you don’t have to worry. They won’t touch this post with a ten foot pole. You might see DBG here, but only because he watches my comments page like a hawk and trolls at me at any article I post on, without bothering to read the actual article.
They are taking their anger out against the Arab, instead of against their government.
That is scary
“If there is going to be a civil war inside Israel, these are the new fronts.”
Much to be desired.
The Silverstein piece also has a description of the provocation that caused the good citizens of anatot to riot:
What angered the “residents” of Anatot (read, police and intelligence officers) about this incursion is that they’re used to having carte blanche in carrying out their jobs. They’re not used to anyone interfering, let alone getting in their face and shouting that they committing a crime or injustice. That doesn’t sit well with the bull-headed macho, male security goon type in Israel. So he roars in anger and takes it out on the protestors as happened in Anatot.
One of our resident Zionists argued that the Anatot thugs are more civilized (compared to what?) and had to be provoked.
So here we have it: the demonstrators gave them some good old fashioned in your face accusations for being immoral. Words can be painful. Come forth Zionist apologist and tell us how the demonstrators had it coming.
Silverstein has another piece up, drawing on what Idan Landau revealed on his blog.
“what Idan Landau has done is to focus very specifically on the level of sexual violence meted out to the female protesters by the settlers. But not just by the male settlers, by the female settlers specifically. I’ve read about the violence of which settlers are capable for years. That’s nothing new. But what Idan has collected in his blog post is new.
Landau interprets the language of the settlers as their means of revenge and redemption of their self-respect. Through rape, sodomy and other physical and verbal acts, the honor of the tribe is upheld. It’s primitive, brutal, bestial, but alas all too human. We think we are Jews, that we don’t do such things, that we are civilized, that we have our sacred books and traditions that raise us above such brutalism. Alas, violence like this reminds us that we are only those things in our best moments. In our worst, we are no different. And when we are no different, we have betrayed those traditions which we like to think set us apart or above the worst humanity has to offer.
This is the face of the Occupation. This is the dehumanization that settlements and oppression of another people do to Israel. And keep in mind that, as I’ve written before, Anatot is not Yitzhar; it isn’t the worst of the settlers, the ones harboring the real Jewish terrorists willing to put a bullet in an Arab’s back just for looking at ‘em. Anatot is known for being an average settlement where Israelis moved for improved quality of life, and for inexpensive housing giving them more house for their money. These are the economic settlers, not the ideological settlers. If Occupation can turn these people into beasts it can do this to anyone, even the best of us.” (richardsilverstein.org)
I find this quite chilling. The settler mafia don’t even bother to hide their racket any more. They don’t care who sees them, so crazed with their righteousness have they become, and utterly convinced of their own impunity. Their contempt and disregard for people who have been there centuries before them, and have more right to the land and water, is ugly beyond words. Like Germans in the 1930′s they are encouraged to feel no pity for the scapegoats of their racist beliefs, and are aided and abetted by the state in their diabolical attacks on them, the ultimate aim to get rid of them altogether. It stinks, and is evidence of how perverted humans can become through an ugly and supremacist ideology which ingrains a sense of entitlement in people who have no genuine claim whatsoever on innocent people’s property and livelihoods.
jewish settlers are to the zionist entity israel as brown shirters were to nazi germany
This is why there will not be a Two State Solution (other than a phony ‘bantustan’ one) – it would mean an Israeli Civil War
police officers and settlers: I sense an attraction here.
When Jews start attacking Jews, it all goes downhill. hellenists and fundamentalists.
….if there is a civil war? I think that horse has finally left the gate and here is the proof. Israel could attack (and murder…) any number of Palestinians indefinitely, and have pretty much gotten away with it. Now that government-backed settlers, aided and abetted by police and soldiers, are targeting Jews? And don’t think this will stay contained in the Occupied Territories. Those settlers have cameras and they ain’t using them to post to YouTube.
Where will Jews flee when it is fellow Israelis who are targeting them with violence?
eee,
You ready to climb down yet?
-N49.
N49,
What are you babbling about?
These stupid activists are very close to 0% if the Israeli population. You think the settlers know who is an international and who is Israeli?
>> You think the settlers know who is an international and who is Israeli?
Why should that make a difference? Is it ok to sucker-punch female internationals and not female Israelis ? Vice versa? I don’t follow. -N49.
here in America the corporate equivalent of the IDF has been dramatically unleashed on peaceful demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street movement and cops have been filmed doing all their thuggery against 1st-Amendment-protected peaceful political protesters: macing them when they were doing nothing, arresting them by the hundreds, beating and being overly physical, etc … and these cops are union and should be morally and intellectually on the side of the protesters … just as you’d think all jews would be on the same side of important issues … PAWNS, people … we are all being played like pawns – the true powers support the banksters and the settlers (Evil is winning this round)
Jews who protect Palestinians aren’t real Jews. They’re nigger-lovers. Worse than actual Arabs, just like whites who betrayed the race were worse than real blacks.
You would have thought eee’s and longliveisrael’s vehement anti-Arab/anti-Muslim attitudes would put off self-proclaimed “interfaith” advocates like DBG… but he sidles riiiight up along side them, at worst having a brief argument.
It’s definitely the Good Ol’ Boys club, 2.0…
“Where will Jews flee when it is fellow Israelis who are targeting them with violence?”
Obviously, they need another Jewish State as a safe refuge from the persecution they suffer in this one.
I was disowned by a friend maybe 6 years ago when I told her that the Israelis would be at each other’s throats without the Palestinian issues to keep them together. Seems I might have been right but lost an interesting friend. She said it was the most racist thing she had ever heard… does zionism make you stupid?
Was that a rhetorical question? Because the answer is pretty painfully obvious, here.
Since it seems that in this case Israelis are at each other’s throat because of Palestinians, your theory is very stupid.
Plus, before 1967 there was no occupation. Where Israelis at each other’s throat?
What do you mean, there was no occupation before 1967? What do you call what happened in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had their homes stolen?
Meanwhile, Livni’s taking advantage of the change in British law, the one that allows her to escape from her crimes in Gaza (sending the boys wild) to visit foreign secretary William Hague on Thursday:
link to guardian.co.uk
hope people in London protest.
Has any of this Brown Shirt Terrorism been reported in the MSM ?
From: Just Jerusalem
Incidents in Anatot, September 30, 2011:
updates, videos, and call to action!
Dear Friends and supporters,
We are confident that you have already heard of Friday’s two grave attacks at the Anatot settlement. Most media reports have been partial and biased; we wanted to give you a full update on the chain of events and keep you informed of our plans.
Last Friday afternoon, a group of activists visited Yassin al-Rifa’i and his family in the village of Anata village, whose lands have been taken over by the settlement of Anatot (also called Almon). The settlers of Anatot have abused the family for years; in repeated attacks, they uproot trees, block water sources, steal agricultural equipment, and harrass and attack the farmers attempting to reach their lands. On Friday afternoon, it was a Palestinian flag that Yassin put up over a tent on his land that gave the settlers of Anatot an excuse for their pogrom. Dozens of settlers, armed with sticks and rocks, brutally attacked Yassin and his family, as well as the activists that accompanied him. The police were present during the pogrom, but stood on the sidelines and did nothing. Three people were hospitalized with serious injuries, three activists were detained for interrogation. Not a single one of the attackers was arrested.
That same evening, forty activists returned to the scene of the pogrom, in order to protest. When we reached the gate of the settlement, we were forbidden enterance, and we remained in front of the locked gate to protest the settlers’ violence and the lack of police resposibility. The settlers of Anatot quickly amassed at the gate: some had participated in the afternoon’s pogrom, some were soldiers and police officers in civilian dress, youths and grown men seething with hatred and hungry for violence. A number of police officers in uniform that were present did nothing to restrain the raging crowd. The settlers demanded that the gates be opened, and under the aegis of the police officers, they charged us, with fists, rocks, and clubs. One of the attackers tried a number of times to stab activists with a knife. When we tried to get away from the place, the attackers chased us, chanting “Death to leftists!” They were accompanied by a group of uniformed police officers. About 10 demonstrators were injured, three of whom were evacuated for medical treatment. Six cars were seriously damaged, and some were totally destroyed. One car door was etched with Starof David. Despite the attack, which was captured by both stills and video cameras, the police did not arrest a single rioter.
It’s not easy to process the meaning of these events. The magnitude of the hatred that the settlers of Anatot – ostensibly non-ideological and non-extremist settlers – showed, and the forgiving and accommodating behavior of the media, are a troubling testimony to the indifference that characterizes Israeli society after years of occupation and repression. We don’t pretend to know how to continue from here. But we feel that the events in Anatot last Friday are – and must be – a watershed moment. We turn to you in hope that we can continue to count on your support and participation in the near future.
Call to action!
Six years ago, the settlers of Anatot decided to move the fence on the southern part of the settlement and to annex private lands owned by residents of the village of Anata. Today their access to their own lands is blocked, thanks to this illegal fence. In Anatot, like in the rest of the settlements, there is no justice and no accountability, and the settlers can do as they please. The violence that took place on Friday is the clear product of the settlement project, the same project advanced and supported by every single government in the past four decades. Its consequences are occupation and repression, theft and land expropriation, the marking dissidents as traitors.
This policy is maintained by the courts, the police that are in collusion with the settlers,
the media that doesn’t do its job, and an Israeli society that keeps its mouth shut.
We will not remain silent.
In the next few days we will announce our plan of action for Anatot.
In the meantime, help us out.
Share this video of Friday’s pogrom in Anatot
so that as many people as possible can see with their own eyes
the true face of the occupation.
For the continuation of the struggle we need financial support. Help us!
Democracy Defense Fund, P.O. Box 10393, Jerusalem, 91103, Israel.
Bank transfers can be made to: Democracy Defense Fund Ltd. (cc), Bank Hapoalim (#12), Branch 574, 38 Hapalmach st., Jerusalem, Israel, Israeli account number: 12-574-254781, IBAN: IL56-0125-7400-0000-02540-781, SWIFT: POALILIT
It is not ever wise to be posting bank account details in this way. Especially those of a bank with a sorid history of poor governance and money laundering.
Yes, waste money on this stupid provocation that will only lead to violence. Since the residents of Anatot can quickly amass many more people than you can, you are banging your head against the wall with this.
Eee, you threaten violence ALL the time. The only thing Palestinians and their rights advocates can do that make you stop threatening violence, is when they fall down dead. And not even metaphorically, only when they LITERALLY fall down dead.
Violent settlers like you need to be brought to justice.
I doff my hat in response to the bravery on the part of the activists I just witnessed in this video. That was truly amazing. Talk about restoring one’s faith in humanity.
I honestly think that civil war, or at least armed conflict between the settlers and the state is just around the corner for Israel.
The frightening thing for Netanyahu is that many of the forces that should be the states defence against this (IDF and police) will act in defence of the settlers. He has absolutely no ability to control these developments.
If he is worried about the damage that BDS is doing to Israels image he is worrying about the wrong thing. He should be worrying about what he will do to deal with the settler threat. They have large amounts of weapons and a messianic ideology that can’t be reasoned with. That is a very dangerous cOmbination
Today (Tuesday) Richard Silverstein has a new and horrifying report, from Hebrew-language sources, about another dimension of this incident:
ANATOT POGROM VICTIMS SUFFERED SEXUAL ABUSE
I think that settler violence spiralling out of control has the potential to do far more damage to Israels “legitimacy” than even BDS.
The illusion of “the only democracy” would be shatterered.
And more importantly they won’t be able to blame the violence on the Palestinians as usual.
The mask will have slipped and I’ll wager it will never go back on again as far as world public opinion is concerned.
Dozens of settlers surround IDF patrol in West Bank and assault soldiers
link to haaretz.com
Civil War
Here it comes….