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We cannot be bystanders to settler violence in the West Bank
The conduct of such extremists makes the present more dangerous and hope for the future more tenuous
Appalling West Bank violence, committed by gangs of settler youths, has not abated despite the widespread condemnation across Israeli society, including by senior religious, military and political figures, and in spite of persistent criticism by Jewish leaders worldwide and the repeated responses of the international community.
I’ve witnessed some of results of this violence. I’ve seen burnt out cars and homes set on fire to drive families from their villages. I’ve accompanied Rabbi Arik Ascherman, one of the bravest people I’ve ever met, when we were called to remove a herd of cows from Palestinian land where they were grazed as an act of theft and intimidation. I’ve picked up the torn exercise books where villagers in the South Hebron Hills were repeatedly threatened until they fled, after which a notorious settler bulldozed the school buildings. I’ve stood with the grieving family of Awdah Hathaleen, a peace activist murdered a year ago. I saw the dark marks of his spilt blood on the ground and was reminded of God’s words to Cain: ‘Your brother’s bloods cry out to me from the earth.’
But that cry has gone unheard by those sections of the army, police and government who have not only failed to stop these wrongs but, not rarely, turned on those striving to prevent them.
The behaviour of these settlers is an abomination. Pursued purportedly in the name of Judaism and a greater Israel, it abases the name of Judaism and grievously harms Israel’s reputation. Asked on the BBC how he felt after witnessing the results of such settler violence, former prime minister Ehud Olmert answered: ‘angry and shamed.’ Many of us feel likewise.
For in truth, the behaviour of such settlers breaks numerous Torah commandments.
It breaks the sixth of the Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shall not murder.’ Settler lawyer Yehuda Simons of Havat Gilad utterly profaned Judaism when, shockingly and outrageously, he said in answer to the question whether one Jewish life was worth hundreds of Palestinian lives: “No, millions. One Jewish life, it’s 10 million.”
Their behaviour breaks the eighth of the Ten Commandments: ‘You shall not steal.’
It breaks the ninth of the Ten Commandments: ‘You shall not covet.’
It breaks the third of the Ten Commandments: ‘You shall not take God’s name in vain.’ It constitutes a chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name, of the worst order, bringing the reputation not only of Israel but also of Judaism into disrepute, and shamefully contaminating the long and noble moral history of the Jewish People.
It breaks the first of the Ten Commandments by setting domination of the land above service of the God of all flesh, by whom and in whose image every human being is created.
The conduct of these settlers makes peace more distant. It ignores the bitterly proven truth that unjust violence begets more violence. It puts yet more lives at risk, Palestinian and Israeli. It makes the present more dangerous and hope for the future more tenuous.
Thank God for those who have the courage, through their protective presence, to oppose such intimidation, injustice and aggression with body and soul. It is they who truly uphold the commandments of the Torah and the essential values of Judaism.
We cannot remain bystanders. We must affirm through our words and deeds what the Torah demands of us in the name of justice, compassion and human dignity, and for the sake, however distant it currently seems, of a better future for all.
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is the Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK, and Rabbi Emeritus of the New North London Synagogue
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