Hate Crimes and Misdemeanors

The anti-Semitic hate crime committed against the Jewish People yesterday is the product of the world we live in. Sad, despicable, horrendous as the carnage against the innocent worshipers at the ‘Tree of Life’ synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa. was, it is not an isolated incident. Nor is it reserved solely for the Jewish People. It happened in churches, in kindergartens, in high schools, in music concert halls. It is powered by and irresponsible, bombastic rhetoric of politicians, and by guns in the hands of sick, hateful people, who spray bullets of death everywhere.

You may have heard of the ‘Proud Boys’, a far-right group of young, racist white males, full of hate and disposition on inflicting violence whenever possible, lately against progressive demonstrators in Portland, Oregon. If you haven’t heard of them, you soon will, just as you probably have heard of their cousins in Europe, especially in Russia, Poland, Hungary and Germany, where their main target of hate and violence are Muslim immigrants, refugees, and of course Jews, for no particular reason.

And talking about Jews, this is really what I wanted originally to tell you about. Because we, in Israel, have our own version of the ‘Proud Boys of Violence.’ Among their forbearers are the Israeli version of ‘La Familia,’ the staunch supporters of the Israeli soccer team ‘Beitar Jerusalem,’ of whom I just watched a most fascinating documentary on Netflix (highly recommended), titled “Forever Pure.” Their favorite slogan, shouted at every opportunity, is “Death to the Arabs.” They are the core supporters of the Likud, on whose shoulders (literally) both President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu rode to power. They had also, most probably, spewed Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister Rabin.

But no, today I’m talking about those who, as we say in Hebrew, are “Mamshichey Haderech.” The “Road Successors.” The young settlers roaming the hills of Judea and Samaria, wearing tzitziyot (fringes) and knitted kippahs, inflicting pain on the Palestinians of the West bank whenever possible. Whether they are shepherds leading their sheep and goats to pasture, or olive growers tending to their groves, you’ll find those Jewish ‘Proud Boys’ exacting pain on the local residents under the protection of the occupation authorities, and the Israeli Army.

Lately, they happened to throw stones on a passing car of a Palestinian family, causing the death of the wife and mother traveling in that car. Now you’d think, since those ‘Proud Jewish Boys’ did that in broad daylight and plain sight, that they would be caught by now, and maybe brought to justice. You’d be wrong. Three weeks later or so, they are free to roam the hills, inflicting pain and suffering again, putting words to action from the book of Beitar Jerusalem’s soccer fans, shouting “Death to the Arabs.”

You might also be saying: Wait, didn’t a young Palestinian man stab to death a Jewish man, a settler, not long ago? And didn’t another young Palestinian man kill two workers at the Barkan Industrial Park near the largest settlement of Ariel, and is yet to be caught? You’d be right bringing up these two cases to the forefront. And though one assailant was caught and already charged with murder in a court of law, and the other one is still on the lam, with the Israeli Army and the Shin Bet hot on his heels; and though their actions are not justified, should be condemned, and would bring the Palestinians no closer to their goal of a state of their own, the differences are striking.

These are act of desperation, by lone wolves, dying to die themselves, and are directed against the occupiers, who are terrorizing and controlling their lives since they were born. It’s an act of defiance, if you will. They do not operate under the cover of a large army, not even under the cover of their own Palestinian security forces. In ninety-nine percent of the cases they are either killed during their terror acts or end up in prison, spending their life there with many of their brothers. As I said, these are lone, desperate acts, not organized terror.

But the actions of these young, messianic settlers, are organized terror against the local Arab population. A “Jewish Terror Act” is how the Israeli media described it lately. They mostly act, wreaking their violence, with impunity. Under the protection—many time literally, as documented by plenty of videos, whereabout Israeli soldiers stand by and look on as they throw stones—of the Israeli Army, the occupation authority of the Israeli Government. What unite these ‘Boys of terror,’ these ‘Proud Boys of Violence,”—like the American anti-Semitic racist who murdered eleven people at the ‘Tree of Life’ synagogue—is pure hatred and the worship of violence.

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