Analysis: Taming the 'Wild West Bank'

Attacking IDF soldiers was once taboo. That taboo has been shattered.

By YAAKOV KATZ
masked settlers 88298 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
masked settlers 88298 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Several weeks ago the IDF Central Command and the Israel Police's Judea and Samaria District held a joint conference to discuss the growing settler violence in the West Bank. The speakers included regional brigade commanders, subdistrict police chiefs and legal advisers. The participants met for several hours and tried unsuccessfully to devise new ways to curb settler violence, which has risen over the past year. On Wednesday, some 40 far-right settler activists attacked IDF reservists near the settlement of Talmon, northwest of Ramallah, caused damage to the pipe system that carries water to the base, and called the soldiers "Nazis." Earlier that same day, soldiers clashed with settlers near the settlement of Yitzhar, south of Nablus, after they began throwing rocks at passing Palestinian cars. In June, two youths from Yitzhar entered a nearby village and attacked Palestinians and damaged homes. They were caught by local residents, and after they were saved by the IDF, they fabricated a story that they had been abducted by terrorists. A month later, settler violence reached a new high when clashes broke out in four West Bank locations; one settler snatched a gun from a soldier and fired into the air, and another attacked a soldier with a knife, pressed it against his neck and stole his helmet. With Israel and the Palestinians discussing a potential withdrawal from 93 percent of the West Bank, these acts of violence demonstrate that the attitude that characterized the 2005 disengagement, when settlers were evacuated with barely any violence, has changed. Then, despite the painful withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, attacking IDF soldiers was taboo and unheard of. That taboo has been shattered. IDF field commanders are the most frustrated with the upsurge in violence. Soldiers are deployed inside and around settlements to protect the settlers, who then attack them. Saturday's incident is, of course, different since the settler violence was provoked by a terror infiltration and the stabbing of a nine-year-old boy. But it wasn't as if the IDF did not respond to the attack. Following the stabbing, the IDF imposed a closure on nearby Palestinian villages. But despite the presence of soldiers in the village of Asira el-Kibliyeh, the settlers were able to roam freely there, shooting in the streets and throwing rocks at homes and cars. No one was arrested. Had a Palestinian fired a shot in a street in a Jewish settlement, the army would have shot him dead. Had an Israeli opened fire on a street in Tel Aviv, he would have been arrested, if not shot. Some believe that the West Bank is turning into the "Wild West Bank," where settlers are taking the law into their own hands.