From B’tselem:
On Saturday, 19.5.2012, around four thirty in the afternoon, a large group of settlers descended on the eastern outskirts of the village ‘Asira al-Qibliya, from the settlement Yitzhar. B’Tselem volunteer photographers filmed the events from two angles. The video shows the settlers, some of whom were masked and armed, throwing stones at Palestinian homes, and fires beginning to burn. One of the masked settlers was armed with a “Tavor” rifle which is only used by infantry soldiers, raising the suspicion that he is a soldier on leave. . .
The video footage raises grave suspicions that the soldiers present did not act to prevent the settlers from throwing stones and firing live ammunition at the Palestinians. The soldiers did not try to remove the settlers and in fact are seen standing by settlers while they are shooting and stone throwing.
The fanatical settler’s from Yitzhar went on another of their rampages last Saturday in the village of Asira al-Qibliya near Nablus. Soldiers guarded and protected them as they shot one of the villagers in the head.
I viewed the attack in a different light this time from past settler attacks. Last week in one of the discussions here about the extremists settlers a commenter, Elliot, in conversation with Shunra about the extremist settlers, mentioned “attacking Palestinians on the Sabbath a religious requirement”. This seemed very extraordinary to me and I inquired about it. Here is his explanation:
You may have seen clips of settlers in white shirts attacking Palestinian olive farmers. The settlers wear white shirts on the Sabbath and religious holidays.
Rabbinic Judaism developed the concept of Sabbath to the point where it supersedes a whole list of Biblical commandments.
The settlers reading of Judaism is regressive. They promote “The Land” to supremacy. The settlers have revived a defunct Talmudic law that states: if non-Jews are encroaching on Jewish property in the Land of Israel, you are required to violate the Sabbath and take up arms to fight them off. Palestinian olive farmers, who insist on continuing to grow their olive trees right next to Jewish settlements, fit the bill.
The scandal involving Israeli rabbis who publicly banned the sale and rental of Jewish-owned apartments to Palestinians is a similar case.
This recent Yitzhar settler attack took place on Saturday, the sabbath.
Shunra and Elliot were discussing Sefi Rachlevsky’s book, Hamoro Shel Mashiach (The Messiah’s Donkey).
I’m familiar with the term Hamoro Shel Mashiach (The Messiah’s Donkey) from Kook theology which fuels ideological settlers on the West Bank. 100 years ago, “the Messiah’s donkey” was a stratagem of the devoutly religious to explain how come the Jewish Age of the Messiah was led not by the devout but by atheists. The donkey provided a solution; the atheists are the donkey that heralds the Messiah. The atheists will build the roads and towns. And then, the religious, will infuse that “body” with spirit.
From the way Israel is going, the plan seems to be working.
The Messiah is taking over from the donkey.
Here is part of Wiki‘s report about the Messiah’s Donkey:
In Israel, the phrase “the Messia’s Donkey” can also refer to the controversial political-religious doctrine ascribed to the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook which claims that secular Jews, which represent the material world, are an instrument in the hands of God whose purpose it was to establish the State of Israel and begin the process of redemption, but upon its establishment they would be required to step aside and allow the Religious-Haredi public to govern the state. According to this analogy, the secular Jewish public are the “donkey”, while the Religious-Haredi public who would take their place represent a collective quasi-Messianic body. A book called ‘The Messiah’s Donkey’, which focuses on this issue, was published in 1998 by Seffi Rachlevsky and caused widespread controversy among the Jewish-Israeli public; according to Hassidic teaching the donkey is a symbol of the fact that the Messiah and Messianic age will not oppose the material world, but rather harness it for sacred purposes. Thus, the act of riding upon the donkey is a symbol of the sovereignty of the Messiah over the material world (represented by the donkey).[3]
When I saw the soldiers protecting the settlers I wondered if they were not playing the part of Rabbi Kook’s version of the Messiah’s Donkey? If so, would not the government of Israel also be in the role of the Messiah’s Donkey? If not, why wouldn’t the government be prepared for these events every Saturday?
Watch as the settlers first approach the village. Why can’t they just stay home on the sabbath?
The video shows fires being extinguished at the background by the settlers and Palestinians attacking them. It also shows active defensive actions, including aiming and shooting by the member of security forces (IDF and civil security teams), protecting civilians trying to extinguish fires. It also shows a significant number of Palestinian civilians, all men, throwing stones. Welcome to the real world.
The good justification for the Fourth Geneva Convention’s “no settlers” policy could not be better demonstrated. Where is the world community?
Once more into the lions den (figuratively speaking )
Here is the other side of the equation by Haaretz:
“The IDF Spokesperson said in response that the shooting took place during clashes between settlers of Itzhar and the Palestinian residents of Asira al-Qibliya, in which both sides threw stones. “Upon receiving the report of the incident, security forces arrived at the scene in an effort to separate the sides,” the statement said. “There was a shooting during the incident and the matter is being investigated… but on the surface, the video that was released does not seem to represent the whole incident.”
The Itzhar settlers said that “the settlement’s security squad and volunteer firefighting crew were called to the scene to extinguish a series of fires set by the Arabs from the town.” They said that “this is the third Saturday in a row that Arabs have been setting fires in an attempt to damage Itzhar’s western neighborhood.”
The settlement spokesman Abraham Benjamin said the video clearly depicts the shower of stones the security squad received as they shielded the firefighting crew with their bodies, after two of them were hurt beforehand.
“It can be plainly seen that the use of weapons by the IDF or the security team was warranted by a real danger to life. The security forces will investigate the incident,” Benjamin added.”
For anyone with doubts check out the other videos on Betzelm site
the clearly shows that the armed settlers and soldiers stand between the Arab population and a group of settlers in the distance that are putting out fires
with tools.
You can see such a tool in the hands of one of the settlers in the video presented here as well.
A second video on Betzelm site clearly shows that the youth that was shot
was not an innocent bystander but he was actively throwing stones when he was
hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IgeQzvIirvQ
The question as to whether the use of lethal force in such circumstances is not for
me to decide from a legal point of view.
I can state that if i were in those settlers place without the proper body armor
and a helmet on my head i would definitely feel in danger for my life.
Getting hit by a large rock on the head even when you are wearing a helmet is
not a pleasant experience.
“The video footage raises grave suspicions that the soldiers present did not act to prevent the settlers from throwing stones and firing live ammunition at the Palestinians. The soldiers did not try to remove the settlers and in fact are seen standing by settlers while they are shooting and stone throwing.”
Why would it “raise[] grave suspicions”? The thugs from the israeli state death squad and these terrorist settler pigs are one and the same.
There is a sequence of events on two videos.
The incident starts with a group running down the hill from the settlement to toward the village. They stop at a group of several trees.
Then we see the Israeli group close to the village and fire behind them, while men of the village line next to the fences of their homes, and throw stones to repel the invading group. Riflemen in Israeli group start shooting in different directions.
Some of the settlers swat at flames that approach them from behind.
Question: why this group run toward to village with fire swatting rockets and guns before the fire, through empty fields? My conclusion is that they somehow anticipated the grass fire. For religious reasons they deny setting the fire, and their version stresses that they used rubber bullets which are classified as “less lethal”. Their explanations makes sense only if they were reacting to a fire on “their fields”, but they started the incident before the fire. I have a strong impression that what the settlers see is VERY different what any recording device would show.
To compare, find the video of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner. There is a moment when he has this glassy look and hesitates, while a Danish young man stands in front of him. [cut to the vision of Shalom Eisner, time rolls back 3000 years] Samson finds ass jawbone and meets a crowd of Philistines, raises the jawbone and smites the impure enemy left and right, while smacking Philistine girls brought to beguile him.
[cut, contemporary vision restored] Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner sees bicyclist rolling in pain while he, mysteriously, has an acute pain in a finger.