by Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho
They despise Hamas and abhor violence. They want to live a normal life.
—Israeli peace activist on West Bank Palestinians
David Shulman—Israeli peace activist, renowned scholar of comparative religion (my field), and winner of the Israel Prize, the nation’s highest honor—visited the West Bank of the Jordan River in November last year. There he witnessed firsthand what the European Union calls “settler terrorism” against the Palestinian residents.
Since Hamas’ murderous attack on October 7, over 1,000 West Bank Palestinians have been forced out of their villages and over 360 have been killed. This is in addition to over 27,000 killed and 66,000 injured in Israel’s indiscriminate attacks in Gaza.
“An Orgy of Violence”
Jewish militants in the West Bank told one village elder: “If you don’t leave, we will come in the night and shoot you all.” Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote that since October 7, “the settlers are in an orgy (of violence).”
The Israeli settlers have been armed (with 8,000 American M-16 automatic rifles) by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the right-wing Minister of National Security. A journalist reports that Ben-Gvir, a settler himself, has “previously been convicted of incitement to racism and for supporting a banned violent Jewish militia.”
In most instances Israeli security forces in the West Bank stand by and do nothing, but sometimes they join in the violence. Issa Amro, a Palestinian peace activist, was arrested and tortured by the Israeli army. “They spat on me, hit me, punched me in the face, and sexually assaulted me.”
Palestinians Called “Rats”
On October 9, Palestinians in Qusra received the following Facebook message: “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village we are waiting for you and we will have no mercy. The day of revenge is coming.” As it is the case in most Palestinian villages, there are no sewers in Qusra, so it was clear who the “rats” are.
Two days later, six masked settlers attacked the village with pistols and a M-16 assault rifle. Three Palestinians were killed including a 17-year-old who was shot in the back. There is video evidence of them coming into the village burning cars and shooting out windows.
Within in clear earshot were Israeli troops, who are, under Israeli law, obliged to protect all West Bank residents. They did nothing to intervene, and they arrived only after the attack had ended. On November 7, a 22-year-old settler was arrested under suspicion of murder, interrogated for 20 minutes, and then released on the condition that he stay away from Palestinians villages.
American Palestinian Shot Dead
On January 19, 17-year-old Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar was shot dead by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The young Palestinian American was on a visit with his parents to see where his father had grown up. The father was sadly mistaken that this remote village would be safe.
When Tawfic’s father went to retrieve his son’s body, the settlers shouted: “We will shoot you if you do not leave this area.” Israeli police promised that they would investigate the attack, but only in rare instances are the settlers punished.
Herds Stolen; Schools Bulldozed
Many of the West Bank Palestinians are, following biblical traditions, herders and farmers. Jewish settlers have stolen village herds, and, in only one instance have Israeli authorities ordered that the sheep be returned. One family who fled with 200 sheep now has no place to graze or water them. Palestinian cisterns have been punctured, their cars burned, their olive groves have been vandalized, and their solar panels have been destroyed.
In one village the school had been bulldozed. Until recently I was more pro-Israeli but even then, I always flinched when I read that the Israelis had routinely bulldozed Palestinian homes because their sons had killed Jews.
This is a rather perverse reversal of the biblical warning that the sins of the fathers (now sons) shall be visited upon the sons (now fathers) of those who hate God to the third and fourth generations (Deut. 5:8). Today, collective punishment is of course a war crime.
Legitimate arrests of West Bank Palestinians for threats to Israel’s security is of course permitted. Indiscriminate arrests and killing there and in Gaza just make the situation worse. Recent video of stripped, blindfolded Palestinian men and boys in Gaza has raised suspicions of civilian harassment and violation of human dignity.
Dangerous “Messianic Ecstasy”
During his visit to the West Bank in November, Shulman met a small group of young Jewish settlers who were puzzled why any good Israeli would come to help Palestinians. Shulman carefully explained why it was essential to treat them with respect and work together towards a lasting peace.
The men’s response shocked Shulman: “What we are doing to these people is actually inhumane, but God promised this land to the Jews, and to them only.” Shulman realized that the forced removal of the Palestinians was due to “a state of messianic ecstasy” and that violence was necessary for the coming of the Messiah.
Shulman recalled that one of his students grew up in a Jewish West Bank town—one of the most toxic anti-Palestinian settlements. She described how she eventually extricated herself from the mental world of her parents.
Shulman’s student confessed to him: “I will never, ever, treat any human being the way I was taught to look at and treat Palestinians.” Experts in the study of genocide agree that the first step in the annihilation of a people is to place them outside the realm of humanity.
(According to a study funded by the U.S. State Department, Palestinian textbooks do not vilify Jews, but many Orthodox Jewish school books contain hate speech against Muslims. See the Jewish journal The Forward, February 4, 2013).
Two States Now Impossible
For decades the West Bank has been promised, along with Gaza, as territory for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Now, however, 60% of the West Bank is under Israeli military control. Palestinians have been moved out of Jerusalem as well.
This of course is illegal under international law, as it is not permitted to occupy land taken by war. Over 750,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, and some of the settlements are even illegal under Israeli law. Authorities have refused to remove the squatters.
Routinely, areas of the West Bank have been declared “firing zones” for military exercises, and on May 5, 2022, Israelis high court ruled that 1,000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta have been removed and their homes destroyed for this purpose. The residents offered proof of their long-time claim to the land, but to no avail.
A press release by America’s Reformed Jews, the nation’s largest denomination, expressed “deep dismay about Netanyahu’s recent dismissal of the possibility of a two-state solution.” The removal of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank and making Gaza essentially uninhabitable makes this promise to the Palestinians impossible to keep.
American Jews Reject Settlements
In July 2021, a Jewish Electorate Institute poll indicated that 58% of American Jewish voters were against the West Bank settlements and they insisted that the Biden administration suspend all U.S. aid until the expansion stops. The same poll found, significantly, that 25% believed that Israel was an apartheid state.
The same poll showed that 22% believed that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. South Africa has now filed genocide charges in the Hague’s International Court of Justice. For decades South Africa’s non-white population suffered harsh discrimination under the previous non-democratic apartheid regime. Remembering this long history of oppression, they have long supported Palestinians grievances.
Carter Right about Apartheid
Former President Jimmy Carter caused considerable controversy with the publication of his 2006 book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. I believe that this Afrikaans word meaning the separation of the races in pre-democratic South Africa is completely apt.
Many Israelis regularly use racist terms for the Palestinians and one statistic about water distribution in the West Bank is sufficient proof of an apartheid state. On average each Jewish settler has access to 247 liters every day. West Bank Palestinians survive on 26 liters per day, but their brothers and sisters in Gaza are near death at 3 liters per day.
Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. He was also coordinator of religious studies from 1980 to 2003. Read more on this issue at http://nfgier.com/?s=israel+palestinians. Email him at ngier006∂gmail.com.