Settler violence
I have no idea what if anything has been reported about this in the US media or not, so here it is. Two days ago a 19-year old Israeli settler boarded a bus in Shfaram, a Palestinan village inside Israel, and opened fire, killing 4 Palestinians and wounding 12 before being killed himself.
Thoughts in the West Bank are that he will just be labeled as crazy and an exception, and no justice will come of the incident. This is usually what happens as a result of settler or soldier violence, as opposed to Palestinian violence which always results in some kind of collective punishment. If a Palestinian shot Jewish Israelis on a bus, their family's home would be demolished, their village put under curfew, their friends and family members arrested, etc. But nobody is imposing a curfew on Tapuach, the settlement that he lived in. Nobody is taking guns away from settlers. Nobody is calling into question why members of Kach, a Jewish terrorist group that has been labeled so by the US and Israel and is outlawed here, are enlisted in the army as soldiers, like he was.
There is a very tiny glimmer of hope here that this incident will create international pressure on Israel to deal with settler violence, and disarm them, but there is no evidence of that happening right now. Sharon has denounced the violence as terrorism, but nobody is taking responsibility for arming a member of a terrorist group, who went AWOL because he didn't believe in removing settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile the news is clouded by the disengagement plan. There was a cartoon in the New York Times a while back that showed a crane lift a block labeled "settlements" out of the Gaza Strip, swing around, and place it in the West Bank. I think this is the clearest depiction of what is basically about to happen. I fear, along with many Palestinians, that while removing settlements is necessary, the disengagement plan will end up too much like the Oslo agreements - a process that promised peace but brought none at all. While settlers either agreeably or violently resist leaving the Gaza Strip, new settlement homes are being built illegally in the West Bank, awaiting residents. It is clear that this disengagement process will result in the Israeli government strengthening it's hold on the West Bank.
Thoughts in the West Bank are that he will just be labeled as crazy and an exception, and no justice will come of the incident. This is usually what happens as a result of settler or soldier violence, as opposed to Palestinian violence which always results in some kind of collective punishment. If a Palestinian shot Jewish Israelis on a bus, their family's home would be demolished, their village put under curfew, their friends and family members arrested, etc. But nobody is imposing a curfew on Tapuach, the settlement that he lived in. Nobody is taking guns away from settlers. Nobody is calling into question why members of Kach, a Jewish terrorist group that has been labeled so by the US and Israel and is outlawed here, are enlisted in the army as soldiers, like he was.
There is a very tiny glimmer of hope here that this incident will create international pressure on Israel to deal with settler violence, and disarm them, but there is no evidence of that happening right now. Sharon has denounced the violence as terrorism, but nobody is taking responsibility for arming a member of a terrorist group, who went AWOL because he didn't believe in removing settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile the news is clouded by the disengagement plan. There was a cartoon in the New York Times a while back that showed a crane lift a block labeled "settlements" out of the Gaza Strip, swing around, and place it in the West Bank. I think this is the clearest depiction of what is basically about to happen. I fear, along with many Palestinians, that while removing settlements is necessary, the disengagement plan will end up too much like the Oslo agreements - a process that promised peace but brought none at all. While settlers either agreeably or violently resist leaving the Gaza Strip, new settlement homes are being built illegally in the West Bank, awaiting residents. It is clear that this disengagement process will result in the Israeli government strengthening it's hold on the West Bank.
posted by Steph at 6:10 PM
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