[News] Israel's leaders stoke flames by lauding deadly settler attacks in Huwwara

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-huwwara-deadly-settler-riot-politicians-laud>
Israel's leaders stoke flames by lauding deadly settler attacks in Huwwara
By Elis Gjevori - February 27, 2023
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Hours before Israeli <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel>
settlers set the occupied West Bank town of Huwwara ablaze on Sunday,
several Israeli politicians called for the Palestinian village to be wiped
out.

In a since deleted tweet, David Ben Zion, the deputy head of the Samaria
Council that governs illegal settlements in the northern West Bank, called
for Israeli politicians to show no mercy and that the “village of Huwwara
should be erased today”.

The tweet was liked by the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and
followed the fatal shooting of two Israeli settlers
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-settlers-killed-palestinian-hawara-nablus>carried
out by a suspected Palestinian
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> gunman on Sunday in the
town.

Ben Zion, who represents more than a dozen Israeli settlements in the
occupied West Bank including where the attack occurred, later said that he
had written the comments in the “heat of the moment”.

Smotrich’s liking of the tweet by Ben Zion also drew condemnation and was
viewed by some as the state sanctioning of mob violence.

“Our minister of finance, minister of the defence ministry and a member of
the security cabinet supports erasing an entire village when the only sin
of its inhabitants is that they are Palestinians,” Shir Nosatzki, a social
media entrepreneur, said on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/shirnosa/status/1629933667630940160?s=20>.

On Sunday, Smotrich escalated rhetoric himself, demanding that the Israeli
army "hit Palestinian cities, with tanks and helicopters, mercilessly, in a
way that would convey that the owner of the house has gone mad".

With buildings in Huwwara still smouldering and the Palestinian gunman
still on the run, Smotrich took to Twitter on Sunday evening to promote a
thread <https://twitter.com/bezalelsm/status/1629953655519563777?s=20> that
recommended the “collective punishment of the terrorist's family and
environment as an effective and necessary tool in asymmetric warfare”.
Collective punishment of occupied populations is illegal under
international law.

At least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 wounded in the attacks
on Huwwara and other West Bank towns and villages, Palestinian health
officials said. Settlers completely burnt down at least 35 homes and 40
others were partially damaged, and many of the buildings were set on fire
while their Palestinian inhabitants sheltered inside. More than 100 cars
were burnt or otherwise destroyed.
'Act with an iron fist'

Smotrich and Ben Zion were not the only Israeli leaders, politicians and
commentators pouring fuel on the fire and seeking to legitimise the actions
of the settlers.

Aryeh Erlich
<https://twitter.com/AryeErlich/status/1630111003647041536?s=20>, an editor
at the ultra-orthodox magazine Mishpacha, downplayed the riots, by writing:

“The thought now should not be of boys whose blood boiled after seeing the
bodies of their two friends lying in their blood on the road.”

Whereas Limor Son Har-Melech
<https://twitter.com/limor_sonhrmelh/status/1629936048812744705?s=20> from
Jewish Power, the party of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben
Gvir that is part of the ruling coalition, called the riots “the righteous
cry of hundreds of Samaria residents who came out to protest and demand
security”.

Similarly, another MP from Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu’s Likud party
sympathised with the settlers, urging the state to “act with an iron fist!”.

As videos of violent lawlessness spread on social media, with Israeli
forces seemingly unwilling to stop rioters, settlers were more than happy
to share their plans.

One settler filmed himself
<https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1629923281288544258?s=20> in
Huwwara as Palestinian houses burned in the background, predicting the
coming end of the Israeli army and the transition to Jewish militias, going
on to laud the “very exciting revenge operation”.
'Immune to the law'

Yet the scenes also frightened many on the right, even drawing a comparison
to Kristallnacht
<https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht>, the
"Night of Broken Glass", the state-directed pogrom against Jews carried out
by the Nazi Party in Germany in 1938, from a seasoned commentator.

“The government needs to decide if it acts as a sovereign in the
territories, if it is determined to impose law and order on Arabs and Jews
alike, or if it serves as a fig leaf for the hilltop youth,” wrote Nahum
Barnea <https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/ryty9tyrs> for the right-wing
Israeli news outlet Ynet, referring to the radical settler group.

'Huwwara is closed and burned. That is what I want to see. Only thus can we
obtain deterrence'

-* Zvika Fogel, Jewish Power politician*

While Israeli settlers have regularly committed attacks against
Palestinians in the West Bank, Sunday's attacks were “almost
unprecedented”, warned Barnea.

Rioting settlers feel “immune to the law. Fear of the state does not apply
to them,” said Barnea.

“Smotrich and Ben-Gvir observe the rioters in Huwwara and probably remember
themselves: when they were their age, they behaved like them.”

With Huwwara largely abandoned by its Palestinian residents, Israeli
settlers rallied in the town, singing in unison under the protection of the
army.

“Huwwara is closed and burned. That is what I want to see. Only thus can we
obtain deterrence,” said Jewish Power politician Zvika Fogel, celebrating
last night’s riots.

At least 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis this year, at a rate
of more than one fatality per day. Meanwhile, 12 Israeli civilians and one
police officer have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

This follows a steep increase in violence in 2022 when at least 167
Palestinians
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-west-bank-deadliest-year-second-intifada>
were
killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest death toll in those
territories in a single year since the Second Intifada. Palestinian attacks
killed 30 Israelis last year.
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