How American citizens are leading rise of ‘settler violence’ on Palestinian lands
The
Biden administration instituted a travel ban on extremist Jewish
settlers who attack Palestinians but there is a glaring loophole for US
citizens
Washington’s
ban on travel to the US by extremist Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank has one gaping loophole.
American citizens have been at the forefront of the rise of settler violence in the occupied territories, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land, but as US passport holders they cannot be barred from their own country.
Many
of the estimated 60,000 Americans living in the West Bank outside of
occupied East Jerusalem moved to settlements for the lifestyle and have
little to do with the Palestinians on whose land they live. But a core
of ideologically driven US citizens were at the forefront of building
religious settlements on land expropriated from Palestinians while
others have led the rise of what has been described as “settler
terrorism”.
The US announced the travel
restrictions as settler violence against unarmed Palestinians escalated
in the wake of the Hamas cross-border attack in October, including
shootings, the destruction of Arab homes and entire communities driven
out at gunpoint. The UN estimates
that about 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year
including dozens of children. While Israel claims many of the dead were
associated with armed Palestinian groups, the UN said the army
frequently works with settlers attacking Arab civilians.
Hadar
Susskind, president of Americans for Peace Now, said these settlers
militias draw inspiration from two Americans infamous as the godfathers
of the campaign of violence against ordinary Palestinians.
An
American doctor from Brooklyn, Baruch Goldstein, murdered 29 Muslim
worshippers in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1994. Goldstein was a
follower of another American, Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right religious Kach party that was eventually banned in Israel and the US under anti-terrorism laws.
“If
you asked who are the most prominent examples of literally murderous
violent settler extremism, the two answers are Goldstein and Kahane.
Those people are the prophets of the settler movement,” said Susskind.
“Earlier this year I led a trip to Israel
and Palestine. We went to Hebron and stopped in Meir Kahane park where
they have a shrine to Baruch Goldstein. His grave is there. It’s
shocking that they have a public park named after an American whose
party was declared so racist that it was not allowed to be in the
Knesset, a person who espoused violence and hatred. And then a shrine to
Baruch Goldstein who took those lessons from Kahane and actualised them
in murdering a group of people at prayer.”
The
spokesperson for the Hebron settlers who maintain the memorials to
Kahane and Goldstein was for many years an American from New Jersey,
David Wilder.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew and his baby visit the grave of Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/EPA
Americans
account for only about 15% of the total settler population in the West
Bank and East Jerusalem but their influence outweighs their numbers.
Sara Hirschhorn, author of a study of Jewish American settlers, City on a Hilltop, said they were distinguished from many other Jewish immigrants who make “aliyah” to Israel and live the other side of the “green line” between Israel and the West Bank.
“Typically we describe American aliyah as an aliyah
of choice because these aren’t immigrants like, say, today’s Ukrainians
coming to Israel fleeing war or those fleeing persecution or poverty.
Rather Americans are looking to fulfil a set of ideological, religious or lifestyle values that they find in Israel and particularly over the green line,” she said.
“Some
of them wanted the lifestyle they lived in New Jersey which was not the
lifestyle of Israel 20 or 30 years ago but they built it in the
settlements.”
Hirschhorn said the bulk of
American Jews arrived in the decade or so after the 1967 war and the
start of the occupation of the West Bank. They were founders of
settlements such as Efrat and Tekoa built on confiscated Palestinian
land. She said many were Democrats who regarded the settlement project
as enlightened.
“They brought with them a set
of progressive values and tactics that they didn’t see themselves as
leaving behind when they came to Israel. Rather they saw themselves
applying the toolkit of the left in the United States, of the social
movements of the 60s and 70s. They hoped that these settlements really
would be a city on a hill as a shining beacon to the rest of the world.
This is really the way Americans saw their project in the occupied
territories,” she said.
Israeli
soldiers guard Jewish settlers who launched an attack on the
Palestinian town of Deir Sharaf in the West Bank on 2 November. Photograph: Sopa Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
That
delusion was stripped away by the outbreak of the first intifada in
1987, the Palestinian uprising against occupation and the expropriation
of their land, when the immigrants could no longer avoid confronting the
reality of the settlement project. Hirschhorn calls it “a moment of
reckoning” for American settlers.
“They
had to make certain choices about what direction they could go in.
Could they continue to live in the occupied territories with a
progressive set of values? Some chose to leave at that moment, some
chose to abandon their progressive values, some chose to try to live
with a sense of cognitive dissonance after the first intifada,” she
said.
“There have been several watershed
moments where the rubber has met the road when it comes to progressive
values and settler realities. The peace process itself in the 1990s saw
hardening of opinion amongst the settler movement who saw their own
future in danger.”
Hirschhorn estimates that
another 100,000 American settlers live in occupied East Jerusalem and
the settlement blocs immediately around the city. They have been
instrumental in the takeover of Arab homes through well-funded settler
organisations.
Later American arrivals were
often Orthodox Jews who included Goldstein. But while some responded to
the intifada with their own violence, US citizens were also at the
forefront of selling the settlement movement to the rest of the world.
“We
see Americans using their skills, both the English language but also
their deep ability to connect with western audiences over vocabulary and
values, to really radically transform the public relations of the
Israeli settler movement to market and justify the project to western
audiences,” she said.
Hirschhorn said that in
turn has had an important impact on Israeli politics with American
settlers serving in key roles including chief of staff to prime
ministers and top aides to members of the Israeli parliament.
“As
much of Israeli politics has become increasingly Americanised, you see
these figures making very significant appearances. So they certainly
have an impact on Israeli domestic policy even if it’s not always as
visible to everyone.”