Over the last day or two, there has been a spate of attacks by Jewish
extremists. About 50 extremists forced their way into the Efraim Regional
Brigade’s base near Kalkilya early Tuesday morning and destroyed IDF property.
In parallel, hundreds converged on Ramat Gilad, an illegal outpost in Samaria,
and threw rocks at passing Palestinian cars. They also attacked brigade
commander Col. (res.) Ran Kahana, who was lightly wounded by a rock. The violent
demonstrations were apparently sparked by rumors of the imminent dismantling of
Ramat Gilad, in line with a Supreme Court decision from August.
This is
not the first time Jewish extremists have attacked the IDF. In September,
activists infiltrated a base in the Binyamin region, slashing the tires and
cutting the cables of 12 army vehicles in a mechanics
workshop.
Meanwhile, earlier Monday night, a group of about 30 activists
broke into abandoned churches in Qasr al-Yahud – the site of Jesus’s baptism –
and declared they would establish settlement outposts. Some threatened to cross
the nearby Jordan border. They were protesting Jordan’s opposition to the
building of a new ramp – known as the Mugrabi Bridge – which would give Jews and
other non- Muslims access to the Temple Mount from the Western Wall
plaza.
In another incident overnight, a group of five Breslov Hassidim
illegally entered Joseph’s Tomb in Palestiniancontrolled Nablus to pray.
Palestinian security forces opened fire. No one was hurt, though one of the five
said a bullet had hit his hat.
IT IS completely legitimate to support
Israel’s right to replace the Mugrabi Bridge, which provides Jews with their
only means of access to a site the Jewish faith considers the holiest place on
earth. On November 28, in a Jerusalem Post editorial entitled “Building
bridges,” we argued that “Israel must not cave in to the insanity of Muslim
extremism” on the issue of replacing the Mugrabi Bridge. We have also argued in
the past that Jews should be given freer access to Joseph’s Tomb for the purpose
of prayer. Similarly it is perfectly legitimate to protest the evacuation of
Jews from their historical homeland, whether in Ramat Gilad or
elsewhere.
But it is one thing to hold these views, and quite another to
avail oneself of destructive means and violence in order to realize them. The
extremists who attacked IDF soldiers near Ramat Gilad and those who infiltrated
the Efraim Regional Brigade’s base went too far. Not only did they attack the
institution most responsible for safeguarding the security of Israelis, they
endangered Israeli lives by needlessly preoccupying IDF soldiers with
maintaining order when they should have been defending our country.
The
same is true of the extremists who occupied abandoned churches in Qasr al-Yahud
and who entered Nablus without coordinating with IDF forces
beforehand.
RABBIS, SETTLEMENT leaders and right-wing politicians were
nearly unanimous in their opposition to the sorts of tactics the extremists
used. MK Ya’acov Katz (National Union), noting the high percentage of IDF
soldiers and officers hailing from settlements, declared that anyone who
attacked the IDF “is trying to hurt the settlement movement.”
Rabbi Nahum
Rabinovitch, head of the Birkat Moshe Yeshiva in Ma’aleh Adumim, told Army Radio
that the demonstrators who had attacked IDF soldiers were “crazies” who needed
psychological treatment.
Unfortunately it seems that many of the
extremists involved in these incidents are rebellious youths who refuse to
listen to authority of any kind. Dani Dayan, chairman of the Council of Jewish
Communities in Judea and Samaria, said, “These people are anarchists... they
treat even the most respected rabbis as if they were nobodies.”
Under the
circumstances, the only solution is a more stringent enforcement of the law. At
Ramat Gilad, only one demonstrator was arrested. Police need to do more to
prevent these sorts of destructive activities and punish those who take part in
them.
As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted in an emergency meeting
with defense officials, “we must deal with these rioters with a heavy
hand.”
While it is legitimate to oppose the dismantling of settlements on
the West Bank, resorting to violence against IDF officers and soldiers endangers
Israeli lives and does more harm than good to the settlement cause.