Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said regarding the rioting in Al-Funduq in the West Bank that he severely condemns all attacks and violence against Palestinians and that he "is sorry about the tragedy that occurred."
There is no reason to doubt Katz's sorrow for the two settlers who were shot and wounded by police officers while they took part in the lynch mob.
On the one hand, the condemnation itself is hard to take seriously. Katz made clear when he assumed the role of defense minister that he was giving a green light to settler violence when he announced – as one of his first acts in office – that he would stop issuing detention without trial orders against settlers.
Anyone who wants to understand what "rioting" means would do well to watch the video clips. They show dozens of masked settlers torching anything they come by – vehicles, buildings, homes – and throwing stones in all directions. A militia for all intents and purposes.
The police officer who shot at the two is being investigated by the police's internal affairs division on suspicion of using his weapon illegally. The officer says the youths belonged to a group of masked individuals who attacked him with pepper spray at very close range.
"Some of them had stones in their hands, and they began throwing them at us," he said. "I really feared for my life and fired several times into the air." He added, "I was afraid they would lynch me."
A security source said the officer may have opened fire thinking the masked men were terrorists. Right-wing activists countered he should have known that they were Jewish since he was chasing them along with an IDF soldier.
The simplest way to reconcile these two versions of events is to recognize that they are not contradictory – there are Jewish terrorists. It cannot be ignored that Katz made a major contribution last week to drawing parallels between Jewish and Arab terrorists when he decided that "due to the expected release of [Palestinian] terrorists" to add his own appendix to the hostage deal by immediately cancelling detention without trial for settlers currently in custody.
The settler riot in the village of Jinsafut in the West Bank, Monday. Credit: Itai Ron
U.S. President Donald Trump has also done his part in encouraging settler violence. On Tuesday, he lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the Biden administration on settlers who had been involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
We can only hope that the Trump administration will soon come to its senses and realize that if it wants to promote global peace, certainly in the Middle East, the settlement enterprise is a serious obstacle.
The incident in Al-Funduq is a taste of what is likely to happen under a reckless defense minister and a prime minister for whom preserving the coalition is everything. The one hope is that the army will do everything in its power to restrain these Jewish terror cells.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.