Breaking the law

When settlers transgress, the security forces usually look the other way.

By DAVID KIMCHE
hebron settler 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
hebron settler 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
In the days when Menachem Begin was prime minister, it was well known among those working closely with him that one of his weaknesses was his blind idolization of anyone in uniform. He loved his meetings as defense minister with the top echelons of the IDF. His special love, however, was reserved for the handful of senior officers who had served with him in the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the clandestine organization that Begin led before the establishment of the state. One of them was Paul Kedar, a colonel in the air force. Begin described him as "one of our 'fighting family,' for whom the teaching of Jabotinsky had always been close to his heart." Kedar believed wholeheartedly in the need for a strong and secure Israel, and spent his working years in the service of his country. Today, at the ripe age of 83, he is still active, though in a different capacity. Together with his wife, Ruth, he stands at the head of Yesh Din, an organization active in Judea and Samaria, dedicated to the maintenance of law. Yesh Din challenges the transgressions of the law committed daily by settlers, and often by the security forces, which should be defending the law but sometimes act in defense of those settlers who thumb their noses at the law. To those who accuse him of having betrayed his past ideals, Kedar replies indignantly: "I am as much a patriot and a Zionist as I was then. I still believe in the need for a strong and secure Israel, but what we are doing in Judea and Samaria is weakening Israel, not strengthening it. What, you accuse me of being a leftist? Is the belief in the law limited to leftists? Does the Right believe that breaking the law doesn't count as long as it is done against Palestinians?" For Kedar, the maintenance of law is paramount. If the law is not applied equally to all, the country's inner strength is undermined. Kedar's wife, Ruth, regularly visits the territories to see first hand the transgressions of the law committed by settlers - cutting down olive trees, killing donkeys and cattle, terrorizing villagers, smashing property, stealing private land... The list is long. It should be stressed that most of the settlers are law abiding. Yet lately settler violence has increased at an alarming rate, committed mainly, but not only, by youth manning the illegal outposts and by the settlements known for the extremist attitude of their inhabitants, such as Yitzhar, Kfar Tapuah and the settlers of Hebron. Last Friday, Yediot Aharanot printed a graphic, surrealistic account of a unit of reservists who had been sent to protect an outpost called Yad Yair in the vicinity of Ramallah and who were viciously attacked by the youth in that outpost and by others from settlements and outposts in the vicinity that they were sent to guard. "I still see the hatred in their eyes, their faces contorted by fury and hostility," the company commander recounted. The reservists, veterans from the Golani and Givati infantry brigades, had left their jobs and their families to act as a shield against attacks on the settlements. Yet they were set upon after six soldiers escorted an official of the civil administration who wished to visit Yad Yair. The youths came from all sides, many of them with kerchiefs hiding their faces. "Let the dog loose," one of them shouted, and a minute later the company commander was bitten in his leg. More and more settlers streamed up the hill. "If we had been attacked by Palestinians we would have known what to do. But this was different," one of the soldiers said afterward. "They cursed us, called us Nazis, punctured all our tires..." As more soldiers came to the scene the settlers pelted them with stones and then attacked them. Among those hurt was the deputy commander of the battalion, whose hand was broken. If the law had been respected and maintained in the territories there should have been immediate action taken against the settlers of Yad Yair and the neighboring settlements of Dolev, Horesh Yaron and others who took part in the fracas. Not surprisingly, nothing of the sort happened, just as nothing is done against settlers who regularly enter Palestinian villages, smash property and beat up villagers. The law is, rightly, vigorously upheld when Palestinians transgress, but when the settlers break the law the police and the defense forces usually look the other way. FROM THE prime minister down - all prime ministers: Labor, Likud and Kadima - there has been a silent, unwritten understanding, which says, "Don't mess with the settlers." The law, according to this understanding, does not always apply to them. Not a single member of the first Jewish underground, who attacked and killed innocent Palestinians, is still behind bars. They were pardoned by president Chaim Herzog. "There is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian," their defenders had said, and the fact is that they got away with murder after having spent time in prison but then having their sentences canceled. They were caught as they were about to place bombs in Arab buses that would have killed dozens of Palestinians. "For me, a Jewish terrorist is as bad as an Arab terrorist, only more dangerous," said the head of the Shin Bet at the time, when a number of ministers, mainly from the religious parties, appealed to him not to have them convicted. "They are fine people, the salt of the earth," the ministers told him. The violence of the more extreme among the settlers and their disregard for the law that characterizes the situation in the West Bank have, apparently, spawned a second Jewish underground movement that this time is targeting Jews. The attempt last week on the life of Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell, coupled with the leaflets distributed in Jerusalem offering a NIS 1 million reward to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now, provide a chilling warning of the danger confronting Israel when a segment of society considers itself above the law. That is how fascism is born; that is how the democratic nature of our society is endangered. This brings us back to the Kedars and to Yesh Din. They are reviled by such groups as NGO Monitor that believe that any person or group that criticizes any deed by Israelis in the territories is automatically acting against the interests of Israel. They could not be more wrong. There are many organizations, NGOs, that automatically criticize Israel for anything and everything that Israel does - because they hate us, and because they would love to see Israel disappear off the face of the earth; NGO Monitor is doing an excellent job in unmasking their true intentions. This is not the case with a number of organizations that criticize the goings-on in the territories for good reason, and it is certainly not true of Yesh Din. The group should be commended for its role in defending the rule of law and for standing up for the Palestinian victims of settler violence. There is a straight line going from that violence to the bomb that was meant to kill Prof. Sternhell. That deed should act as a wake-up call for all of us before it is too late.