Israeli Settlers Media Briefing
Commentaries from Israel's pro-settler online media
Issue No.1
7 March 2023
Context
As of 2021, there were approximately 140 official Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, with about 450,000 Jewish settlers living in those settlements. In addition, there are over 200,000 Israeli settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem.
In the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, there are around 30 Israeli settlements, with an estimated population of over 26,000 settlers.
It is important to note that the West Bank and the Golan Heights are considered occupied territory by the international community, and the presence of Israeli settlers is considered a violation of international law.
During 1 January - 7 March 2023 Israel killed 66 Palestinians, while 14 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians.
Warning
The quotes in this issue contain expressions of racism and incitement to violence. They are deemed critical to include in the Briefing in order to give an accurate picture of Israeli settler discourse towards the Palestinians.
In this issue:
Former Israeli army prosecutor says Israel should shun Western values, introduce death penalty for Palestinian 'beasts of prey'
Columnist calls for systematic destruction to deter 'human-killing Arab savages living in our country'
Writer advocates collective punishment in response to Palestinian resistance in West Bank
Columnists urge Israeli government to declare sovereignty over West Bank, martial law for Arab citizens
Writer says the town of Hawara 'got what it deserved'
Former army prosecutor says Israel should shun Western values, introduce death penalty for Palestinian 'beasts of prey'
A former Israeli armed forces prosecutor in the occupied Palestinian West Bank has called for the introduction of the death penalty – but only for Palestinians.
In an opinion piece published in the pro-settler Arutz 7 news website, Maurice Hirsch, current Head of Legal Strategies, Palestinian Media Watch, lauded the bill calling for the death penalty, submitted to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, by Member of the Knesset Limor Son Har Melech and approved in the first reading. But he lamented that "we limit ourselves out of the illusion that if we behave like the Western countries… maybe they will love us, or at least hate us a little less" and "gave up the death penalty, which is no longer customary in the 'enlightened' countries".
Hirsch says Israel "is not Paris, London, Madrid or New York. Here beasts of prey are lurking for us in every corner. Here parents submissively and willingly send their children to die, on the condition that they try to murder Jews. Here an evil entity pays terrorist rewards at an increasing rate: the more Jews you kill, the more money you will earn."
He continues:
"There will always be a handful of people who really want to die. But they are not the majority. The arrested terrorists do not want to die; they have hope. If we want life and want this majority to be warned, we must change direction and make sure that the terrorist who kills Jews does not have even a shred of hope left.
"The victory over our enemies will not come from weakness and laziness. Only when we defeat our enemies, and in a knockout blow, will it be possible to move towards peace. Applying the death penalty to terrorists will increase the vigilance of the State of Israel and save lives."
Source:
https://www.inn.co.il/news/594388
Columnist calls for systematic destruction to deter ‘human-killing Arab savages living in our country’
In an opinion piece on the killing of two Jewish brothers from the settlement of Har Bracha, near the town of Hawara in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Beaz Shapira calls for the systematic destruction of Hawara.
"No one will bring back those murdered… What can be done is to create a deterrent that will… remove any thought or even malicious reflection from the ignorant hearts of the human-killing Arab savages living in our country…
"What needs to happen in the coming days is as follows:
"Very large forces of the army, including engineering vehicles, D-9 tractors, the Border Guards and combat units – all of these should arrive tomorrow morning at the outskirts of Hawara…
“This force must carry out the following task: the middle of the village… is a crowded urban street with shops, restaurants, slaughterhouses, garages, auction houses, mosques, residences here and there and other buildings on both sides of the street…The heavy engineering tools must pass along this axis and destroy every building on both sides of the street and to a depth of 50 metres on each side. [A]fter the completion of the execution, nothing but rubble and remnants of bricks, plaster, iron and other building debris will be left along the entire axis. What was on the eve of the attack a vibrant life centre – a centre for entertainment, shopping, crafts, trade, meeting and moving between the houses of the village and its neighbourhoods – should be flat, neglected, abandoned and desolate, like the face of the moon…
“You should know this: the village of Hawara has changed its face in the last decade. A lot of money, European and American, was invested in the village, especially in the main street that runs through its centre. Dozens and perhaps hundreds of new and shiny buildings, luxurious and crowded restaurants, bakeries, shops, neat squares and more… all these were built with great effort and upgraded the lives of the residents to a very large extent…
“In addition, the security forces need to locate the murderer and those who aided him and eliminate them. The instruction that should be given to the troops is ‘Wanted – dead or dead’!… As part of the operation, the security forces should gather the murderer's clan and deport it outside the borders of our country…
“I see in my mind's eye the cynics, our brothers who have lost faith in ourselves, the faithless… the pragmatists, the 'humanists' and the 'liberals' who seek human rights. Each of the above will oppose what I proposed… Starting with fear of the reaction of the nations of the world, through fear of ourselves, through fear of an Arab warlike reaction, through concerns from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and ending with baseless claims, as if we are not humane enough…
“Gentlemen, if we continue with laziness, insecurity, hidden fears and 'pragmatic' concerns, if we consider the United Nations, Joe Biden and the European Union, if we continue to hear the voice of the 'enlightened' from the Supreme Court forbidding the sealing of a murderer's house and ordering us to endanger our soldiers another time… then we are lost and Jewish blood will continue to be shed like water…
“Aggressive and uncompromising action, as suggested above, is a security duty, a Jewish duty, a human duty and a supreme moral imperative for all those who believe in God – brothers, sisters, mothers, orphans, old men, young men and women killed by the murdering, barbarian neo-Nazi Arabs.”
Source:
https://www.inn.co.il/news/593850
Writer advocates collective punishment in response to Palestinian resistance in West Bank
The Israeli army must free itself from the concept of defence and move to attack, eradicate and destroy", writes Itamar Sagt in the pro-settler Arutz 7 news website.
The "tweezers method", he argues, has failed. With "tweezers you remove pus, not a cancerous growth. Those who want to uproot a field of weeds do not use gloves, but shovel on the surface and transform it throughout its length and breadth…
"If Hawara has become for many years a focus of throwing stones and murdering Jews, there is no need to burn down buildings and shops; there is a need… to shave all the houses near the axis…
“There is no such thing as a lone terrorist. This is a theory invented by those who are fed up and discouraged by the victory of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] and the sovereignty of Israel in their country, people who are captive to a twisted morality according to which the terrorist's family, friends and surroundings have no responsibility for his actions. Collective punishment is an unpleasant action, but it is a method that works, that deters, that shows the other side that we came here to decide and to win…"
Source
https://www.inn.co.il/news/593725
Columnists urge Israeli government to declare sovereignty over West Bank, martial law for Arab citizens
Writing in the pro-settler Jewish Press news website, Judith Katsober and Nadia Matar called on the Israeli government to respond to attacks by Palestinians on settlers and other Jews in the occupied West Bank through strong-arm tactics "and not leave the job to the settlers who absorb the terror of stones, shooting and Molotov cocktails every day".
Such strong-arm tactics, they say, should go hand in hand with redoubling the building of Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law, and a declaration of full sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian West Bank – "Judea and Samaria".
In addition, they argue, "The prime minister should do as David Ben-Gurion did and, as a first step, impose a military government on the Arab population until the sole ownership of the people of Israel over their land is internalised and until the willingness of this public to live there in peace and complete loyalty is proven…"
Source:
Israeli writer: The town of Hawara ‘got what it deserved’
An Israeli writer has attacked Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Executive Vice-President of the Orthodox Union, for criticising the Jewish settlers who rampaged through the town of Hawara, completely burning 30 houses and partially burning 40 others, and destroying 100 cars. One local resident was killed and 100 others injured, four critically, in the rampage.
According to Shmuel Sackett, whose opinion piece was published in the pro-settler Jewish Press news website, "Rabbi Hauer opened his words with a question: 'How can such a thing happen? How could it come to this, that Jewish young men should ransack and burn homes and cars?'"
Sackett's answer is that Hawara "is the centre of jihadists" and that "most of its 8,000 residents are vicious, violent anti-Semites who advocate, support and celebrate the spilling of Jewish blood".
He continues:
"The town of Hawara got what it deserved, and the next time a brick is thrown the response will be even more severe. Ideally, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] needs to respond this way, but if their hands are tied by political sissies then the residents [Jewish settlers] need to teach the lesson themselves".
Source:
ENDS