We must not look away from settler violence in the West Bank

Thousands of years of persecution have accustomed Jews to the brutality of others. We know that majorities tend to victimise minorities; that religious extremists use divine right to oppress, that the powerful seek to consolidate territory and drive out the weak.

We have often told ourselves that our historical experience of victimisation means that Jews will never treat others like that.

The past few years have proved that belief wrong. There is a small but growing group of right-wing, religious Jews who regularly inflict terror on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Every week, groups of thugs from Jewish settlements in the area they call Judah and Samaria, invade Palestinian villages and farmland, harassing people and livestock, preventing farmwork, sometimes setting fire to cars, desecrating mosques, and assaulting Palestinian civilians.

These Jewish terrorists have killed at least 19 Palestinians in the past two years.   

Saturday’s attack on the village of Madama, south of Nablus, was typical.  Madama residents reported that a group of settlers from a recently established outpost attempted to steal sheep from Palestinian shepherds who had brought them to graze on open land.  When the Palestinians resisted, the settlers attacked them with clubs, pepper spray and stones.

IDF soldiers arrived and opened fire on the riot, preventing Red Crescent ambulances from reaching the wounded. Seven Palestinians were hurt in the fighting. It is unclear how many were victims of the settlers and how many were hurt by the IDF.