Also, the harassment regarding “incidents of conflict” when Palestinians kill Jews. The dreadful way in which settlers are blamed for events in which they are the victims. And why the IDF refuses to publish details of the events and allow us to judge for ourselves.
Kalman Liebeskind
December 29, 2023
Translated into English as a public service by the Sovereignty Movement
Fake. Incitement. Disinformation. Each of these options is suitable to describe the sensational story “exposed” last week on Efi Triger's show on Galei Zahal (official radio station of IDF).
“Judea and Samaria are in flames” Triger updated, and described that “in an internal IDF document it has been revealed that in the two months since the war broke out, there has been a more than 54% increase in nationalist crimes by settlers in Judea and Samaria relative to the previous two months.”
Hod Barel, the correspondent who reported the story, it quickly became apparent, made a jumble of the data leaked to him from someone in the IDF, on the way to the bottom line.
“According to official internal data of the defense establishment that reached Galei Zahal,” he said, “in the first two months of the war, 201 nationalist crimes were perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. By comparison, in the two months before the war, 130 nationalist crimes were recorded by the IDF. We see a 54% increase in incidents.”
After dropping the bombshell, details began to emerge, taking the hot air out of the balloon inflated at the military broadcasting station. “136 of them, that is, the majority, are incidents characterized as violent clashes or stone throwing incidents. The reference is to incidents where, typically, both parties, Palestinians and Jews, are involved. For the army arriving on the scene, it is not usually clear who initiated and instigated the confrontation.”
“A senior security official who confirmed the data,” the journalist reported, “informs us that most of the severe criminal incidents occurred during the first month after the war broke out, and now there is a certain decrease on the ground in the number of incidents in the area.”
A few days passed, and the IDF itself had to retract this false report, which someone had an interest in promoting. This happened after Ariel Kahana exposed in “Yisrael Hayom” that the data actually indicates a significant decrease in incidents of that kind.
I prefer not to begin breaking down the numbers one by one because there is a much broader conceptual problem here. This is because the question is not whether there is an increase or decrease in incidents, but whether this story is supposed to interest us any more than the data on the rise or fall of crime in Hadera or Arad.
But just because this cannot be completely ignored, let us say that since history teaches that clashes between Arabs and Jews in Judea and Samaria depend on many seasonal variables, such as the olive harvest, comparing the situation this month to the situation in the previous month is like saying that there was a significant increase in rainfall in winter relative to the preceding summer.
What does a comparison of the real annual data say? In November this year, there was a decrease of 55% in incidents relative to the previous year, and in October, there was a 31% decrease in incidents relative to the previous year.
But put this distortion aside. Galei Zahal and that same IDF official who provided the data, relate that 136 of the 201 incidents that occurred during the period of the war, are, as the correspondent explained, “incidents characterized as violent clashes or stone throwing incidents. The reference is to incidents where, typically, both parties, Palestinians and Jews, are involved. These are cases in which both sides are usually involved, both Palestinians and Jews. For the army arriving on the scene, it is not usually clear who initiated and instigated the confrontation.” I emphasize again: 136 out of 201, meaning that the IDF cannot determine “the exact instigator” in 67% of the incidents. But that was sufficient for him to categorize them as the criminal acts of Jews.
What kind of twisted Jewish mind decides that in any event where it is not clear who was at fault, the Arabs or the Jews, the default assumption is that the Jews are guilty?
As mentioned, these numbers are not really important. Addressing them is nothing other than a deliberate diversion from the truly important facts. These facts indicate that while Galei Zahal sends their reporters to find out what the settlers are doing to the Palestinians and in how many incidents of conflict where it is unclear who initiated them they were involved, Palestinians continue to relentlessly try to murder Jews in staggering numbers.
This data from the General Security Service report for the months of October and November in Judea and Samaria, and Jerusalem, the same months covered by the Galei Tzahal report. In these two months alone, Palestinians perpetrated 458 Molotov cocktail attacks, 259 pipe bomb attacks, 103 attacks with guns or rifles, 23 arson attacks, 4 car-ramming attacks, and 7 stabbing attacks against Jews.
These numbers do not include incidents of stone throwing at private vehicles, which, according to official data, include only incidents in which the Jewish victims took the trouble of reporting to the authorities, there are ten incidents on average every day.
Oh, and one more thing. In the month of November alone, while Galei Zahal was busy counting “incidents of conflict” or scuffles between Jewish and Arab shepherds, seven Jews were murdered in Palestinian terrorist attacks.
So that you will understand the value of the statistics that they are feeding us, take, for example, one of the stories of that “nationalist crime” of Jews, regarding which the Galei Zahal correspondent reported that “the IDF cannot determine the exact instigator” and therefore it was counted to the detriment of the Jews. This example, cited by the reporter from the IDF document, relates that “several Palestinians who threw stones at an Israeli vehicle in which there were two settlers and a reserve soldier near Kisan (southeast of Bethlehem, KL). In response, the occupants left the car and the reserve soldier fired into the air (no damage and no injured, KL). Then, the Palestinians struck the civilians, threw stones at them, and tried unsuccessfully to snatch the gun from the soldier.
“As a result of the clash, a settler was injured in a non-critical manner, and was evacuated by Magen David Adom to Shaare Zedek Hospital. Subsequently, stones were thrown at a patrol vehicle of an IDF force in the region... The force disembarked from the patrol vehicle and fired toward the suspects. As a result, three Palestinians were wounded, one critically, one lightly, and a third whose condition was unknown, who were evacuated by the Red Crescent to the medical center in Tekoa.
Later, an additional nationalist crime occurred following a violent confrontation due to a physical clash between 20 settlers and 20 Palestinians in the area. No damage and no injured.” This is the complete quote from the IDF document.
I went to investigate this incident to determine what transforms it into a “clash” event and what causes the IDF to think that it is specifically the Jews who were responsible for it. Well, it turned out that police of the Shai (Samaria and Judea) District succeeded, in an extensive investigation, to decipher this incident and to arrest three Palestinians as a result. The indictment filed against them by the military prosecution relates the following story. Read it and decide for yourselves who the violent side is here: “‘A’ traveled with three youths towards his home in the settlement of Tekoa. On the way, when he noticed a flock of sheep and ten Palestinians standing at the roadside, he slowed down, and then the Arabs began throwing stones at his car. ‘A,’ who was armed, moved forward a bit, stopped, got out of the vehicle with his passengers, and told them to alert the security forces and summon them. At this point, one of the Arabs attacked ‘A’ and tried to snatch his weapon, while four others beat him with sticks and stones.”
"‘A’, who felt that his life was in danger, fired two shots towards the ground until his weapon jammed. Most of the Arabs began to flee. One of them stayed and continued trying to snatch the weapon. When the youth who arrived with ‘A’ attempted to approach him and help, they were pushed away by the Arabs, who threw stones ‘to protect themselves from the attackers, and some even threw stones towards the attackers,’” as described by the military prosecution.
“In the meantime, the Arabs who fled earlier returned and resumed attacking ‘A’ with stones and clubs. At this point, ‘B,’ another Israeli armed with a pistol, passed by. ‘B’ noticed what was happening, got out of his vehicle, fired into the air, and called on the Arab attackers to move away. As he approached ‘A,’ he saw him bleeding from his head, with one of the Arabs clutching his weapon while others were casting stones at him. A moment later, one of the Arabs also tried to snatch ‘B's weapon. Ultimately, after some time had passed, security forces arrived and 'separated’ between them. ‘A,’ according to the indictment filed against the Palestinians, “sustained severe head injuries, including a deep cut in the scalp, as well as in his left leg.”
“I remind you again that according to the document publicized on Galei Zahal, this event is classified as a Jewish ‘nationalist crime,’ as an example of one of the mutual confrontations that the IDF usually cannot determine who truly instigated them. What else is there to say about this?
Now listen to what, in my opinion, is most astonishing here. A week ago, I contacted the IDF Spokesperson and requested to receive the details of events categorized by the IDF as a Jewish nationalist crime. Not to receive the summary of the IDF's tally, as you have seen how much that is worth, but to count them myself. The IDF adamantly refused. For a week, they came back to me with various and alternating excuses. Initially, they claimed that the IDF did not have the data at all, and it was only in the hands of the police. Later on, they explained that these were events involving civilians; therefore there is a problem with their publication. Then, they justified the refusal by stating that there is a legal problem in publicizing this list.
I remind you, this is not classified material. This is not intelligence information. It is a list of events on the basis of which we could arrive at a determination, without the mediation of the head of the Central Command, whether the phenomenon known as “settler violence” exists, what is its essence, how severe is it, and to what extent does it deserve treatment different from violence in Tel Aviv.
You may ask, why suspect that someone is deceiving us? Well, also because of the example I cited above that teaches a lot. Also because in summarizing the data on "Jewish nationalist crime", as they are publicized, in any event where it is unclear what happened and who started, the default is that the Jews are guilty. Also because there are many cases where Palestinians file complaints, for instance, about agricultural crime, and if it is not clear to the authorities whether or not the complaint is true, there is no reason for it to be tallied to the detriment of the Jews.
This week, in that context, I read in Ariel Kahana's column in “Yisrael Hayom” that “now even in the Central Command they agree that many incidents reported by left wing activists as ‘settler attacks’ turned out to be false.”
Kahana also cited an example: “One of the many false reports transpired in the village of A-Daba, in southern Mount Hebron. An organization called ‘The Villages Group” posted on Facebook that 50 settlers raided the village, causing significant damage, beating people, and confiscating property. After a few hours, it turned out it was an IDF operation to locate illegal weapons, which were, indeed, found in the village; an operation that was carried out legally.”
And if all this hasn’t convinced you that something is off here, let me remind you that a little over one year ago, I managed to obtain and publish the complete list of violent incidents committed by Jews, as it was consolidated by the defense establishment at that time. It was a list that was a huge jumble of incidents with nothing connecting them. In some, no violent act was committed at all, in others, it was not necessarily the Jewish side that was violent – yet somehow, they were all packaged together, marking the settlers as responsible.
The first event on that list was a “demonstration of extreme right-wing activists on Saturday night, outside the home of the Justice Minister in Tel Aviv.” Yes, indeed. The rabbi of the Beit El community stood opposite the minister’s house with a sign saying: “Fight terrorism, not settlement.” Alongside him stood another woman with a sign saying: “Saar, destroying houses in the settlements is a full-fledged left-wing policy.” A third sign demanded: “Build, do not destroy.” This protest was counted as an event of Jewish nationalist crime.
In that list of nationalist events, there was also a story about “a settler arrested due to insulting a policeman.” There was also an event categorized as “a physical clash between 100 Palestinians and 100 settlers,” in which one Jew was injured. Despite that, it was classified as a Jewish nationalist crime.
What am I trying to say? The data on “settler violence” cannot be a plaything with which anyone can play as needed. There is no reason why this list of events should not be publicized, with each of us having the ability to decide on our own whether he accepts the numbers fed to him by the IDF, or whether someone is engineering his consciousness for him.
If there is a Palestinian complaining that someone uprooted his olive tree, I want to know where it was, when it was, whether he approached the police to complain or only reported it to a left-wing organization, whether the investigation conducted confirmed his allegations or revealed it to be a false report. But the Central Command, as stated, keeps this information to itself, suffices with distributing graphs it produces and selectively leaking them. It is impossible to accept a reality of that kind.
Something must be understood. The question of whether there is an increase or decrease in actions labeled as “settler violence” is meaningless. There are criminals in Gedera, criminals in Amsterdam, and criminals in Samaria as well. In all these places, law enforcement should deal with it. But it must be known that in the attempt to transform settler violence into something special, different, and dangerous – worthy of mentioning and monitoring – there is nothing innocent.
This attempt is fueled by substantial funding from the European Union and by organizations of the United Nations.
For the Israeli media, the “Breaking the Silence” movement, and the American State Department – all those who are obsessively and disproportionately engaged in this issue – there is a clear objective that has nothing to do with law enforcement. Their goal is the establishment of a Palestinian state.
One of the methods: portraying settlers as a dangerous and violent demon that must be fought. None of these elements exaggerating this campaign has any interest in the police or the Shin Bet (General Security Service) arresting those dozens of youths involved in these various clashes. They need them outside, on the ground, to fuel the campaign.
And when I say to you that several dozen incidents of violence do not warrant special journalistic treatment, I volunteer to provide you a small lesson in journalism. A newspaper article has no life of its own. An article is what the media is interested in making it. Not long ago, I saw in a protest tent opposite the Prime Minister’s Office a massive printed sign, red letters on a white background saying: “Bibi is a traitor.” I am old enough to remember that once, an unpleasant letter sent to a Supreme Court justice was the lead story on the television news, and a more moderate Facebook post against President Reuven Rivlin caused a huge uproar. The sign “Bibi is a traitor,” located in a very prominent place in Jerusalem, which I assume 500 journalists see every day, yet strangely, none of them thought it was a major story.
Just like that sign “Bibi is a bitter enemy” – yes, precisely that – which I saw on a bridge on my way to work one morning.
Put aside the exhausting argument of which side incites more.
That is not the point here. What I want to say is that the only thing that distinguishes a minor event from a major one is a journalistic decision. That is the story of settler violence.
This community has been absorbing severe, terrible blows for years. There is no settlement without murder victims from Arab terror. There is no family that does not fear having a rock thrown by Arabs at a little girl’s window in the car, yet the media will always consign these members, half a million in number, to the category of the problematic ones.
I demonstrated this here, approximately two years ago, by means of a small example. In order to explain how despicable and deceitful the debate about “settler violence” is, I conducted a small exercise. I examined how many violent incidents occur annually among settlers and how many sex crimes take place annually among Tel Aviv residents. Analysis of the data taught that in Tel Aviv, there are many more sex crimes perpetrated annually per capita than incidents of violence annually perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria per capita. And concede that sex crimes are not a trivial matter. So why does the media focus on settler violence and the media does not focus on the sexual crimes committed by residents of Tel Aviv? Because that is how propaganda works. It takes a factual, albeit minor, datum, ignores its entire context, embellishes it as though it is the story itself, and focuses on it alone. That is the whole ballgame in a nutshell.
The attempt to transform the settlers into monsters is not just the motive of the media in this country. It is the motive of the insane obsession with this minor issue throughout the world. Two and a half months ago, we experienced a horrific event. Palestinians from Gaza invaded our communities and murdered us, massacred us, burned us, raped us, and abducted hundreds of our innocent citizens – the elderly, women, and children.
After this terrible catastrophe, there is virtually no leader in the world who has not taken the trouble, alongside addressing Hamas terrorist acts, to also address “settler violence.” There is Hamas terrorism, and there is settler violence.
I compiled a short list, just from recent weeks.
Starring on this list are the British representative in the Security Council and the British Foreign Minister; the Chancellor of Germany and the German Foreign Minister; the President of France and the French Foreign Minister; the President of the European Commission and the Foreign Minister of the European Union; the Prime Minister of Belgium, the Foreign Minister of Belgium, and the Minister for Immigration Affairs of Belgium; leaders of the G7 countries and the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court; the Foreign Minister of Canada, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and various representatives from Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
This is only a partial list.
Leaders from around the world are addressing “clashes” between a Jewish shepherd and an Arab shepherd. I am willing to wager with you that if the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands really knew what was happening, and they do not parrot it just for the sake of parroting it, they would die of laughter.
All this before we reach President of the United States Joe Biden, his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and, according to the official statement that was released, expressed concern about the settler violence. Now, one must understand how insane this reality is. Abbas pays a monthly salary – publicly, declaratively, as part of a worldview – to anyone willing to slaughter Jews, and senior American government officials talk to him about settler violence.
Indeed.
When Biden and the leaders of Holland, France, and Great Britain see to the needs of the Palestinian Authority and embrace its leader, they embrace his payment to murderers of Jews. There is no other way to look at it. Imagine if an Israeli mayor, not the Prime Minister, just a mayor, say Yossi Dagan from the Shomron, announced that he promises to pay a monthly salary for the rest of his life to anyone who murders Americans. You know what? Not Americans, Palestinians. Can you imagine the enormous uproar that would be sounded worldwide? And here, the head of an authority embraced by the whole world is paying a salary to anyone willing to slaughter a Jewish child, and representatives of the Western world are all talking to him about “settler violence.” Is there a more deplorable moral nadir than this?
In the face of all this, our Prime Minister is silent, the cabinet is still, and the Knesset of Israel is not uttering a sound. Because what is the murder of Jews relative to a clash with a shepherd from an outpost?
It is astonishing that to this day, no senior official in Israel has had the courage to take a stand against this contemptible campaign, in which our closest friends take an active part, and even fund it generously and to tell the truth: “Friends, this is a joke that is out of control. Come here, let us review the documents with you, show you the places, and it will become clear to you that this nonsense that you have become accustomed to mention in every speech – between the paragraph on global climate issues to the Houthi threat on ships in the Bab al-Mandab – is more insignificant than the violence on a block and a half in the Bronx.
It is amazing that even the head of the Shin Bet and the Chief of the Central Command live in peace with this defamation of a community that contributes and volunteers and sacrifices its life for the country and exists under a constant reality of life subject to blood libels.
Not only are our elected officials silent, and not only are the heads of our defense establishment silent. The Israeli media also peacefully coexists with this situation. If there were someone in our area code willing to pay a monthly salary to anyone willing to rape a woman, we would be up in arms. So how is it that when the Palestinian Authority volunteers to pay anyone who murders Jews, it is accepted by the television newscasters with such equanimity?
After all, just this year, in this region, the land of "settler violence", Hillel and Yagil Yaniv, two youths, were shot point blank by Palestinian terrorists. In the same town where they were murdered, Hawara, 60-year-old Shai Nigerker and his 29-year-old son Aviad were also murdered. Elsewhere, Lucy Dee and her daughters, Rina aged 15 and Maya aged 20, were murdered when Palestinian terrorists shot them and returned to confirm that they were dead.
Meir Tamari, a father of two young children aged one and three, was also murdered in a shooting at a gas station near Eli. Elisha Antman, 18, Ofer Feierman, 63, Harel Masoud, 21, and Nahman Shmuel Mordoff, 17, were also killed in the same attack. Bat-Sheva Naigari was killed in front of her 12-year-old daughter. Elan Ganales was murdered when Arabs shot at his car near the Beit HaArava junction. This list does not include dozens of Israelis who were murdered this year in Jerusalem or within the Green Line, nor does it include settlers who were victims of similar attacks and miraculously survived them. It also does not include soldiers who were killed.
Once again, it turns out that innocent Jews who left their homes and did not return are less interesting to the Dutch, the Belgians, and yes, even to the Americans. Therefore, we must remind ourselves again and again that there is nothing at all innocent about the treatment of settler violence. When the President of the United States – where there are hundreds of mass murders every year and thousands of anti-Semitic incidents annually - occupies himself with David and Ahmed who encounter one another at a wadi near Kusera and throw stones at each other, one need not be a genius to understand that something here is not innocent.
Ezri Tubi, a resident of Yitzhar, a talented man who produces information videos distributed worldwide, recently produced another video in response to President Biden, after he declared: “I continue to be concerned with the extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.” “Hello, Mr. President,” Tubi begins, “I would like to ask you one question. Can you provide us with the name of one Palestinian who was killed in a premeditated attack by a settler? I am not referring to a Palestinian who was killed in an attempt to harm Jews, but a case where a settler left his home with the express intent to murder an Arab. Give us one name from the beginning of the current year. Perhaps in 2022? 2021? 2020? 2019? 2018? Not even one case, sir.”
And here, Tubi presents, one after another, images of the settlers who were murdered this year by Arabs. Innocent people who did not clash with anyone, did not quarrel with anyone, and were not murdered in the course of a dispute with anyone. Jews, whose Arab murderers expressly left their homes to kill a Jew, no matter who he was. “Mr. President,” Tubi concludes, “'if given the opportunity, the Arabs who surround the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria would slaughter our children and rape our women, just as they did to us on the Gaza border. We do not need another October 7 to prove this.”
That is the whole story. When Jews travel in bulletproof vehicles, but Palestinians need not do so; when there is a rapid response team in Karnei Shomron, but there is no need for one in Nebi Elias; when Arabs circulate freely in Ariel, but a Jew who mistakenly enters Jenin forfeits his life, the campaign dealing with the settler violence is nothing but a new version of anti-Semitism.
To read the original article in Hebrew