The IDF is offering ever more support to settlers as its influence by religious-nationalist politics increases
Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 October 2009
".....Furthermore, a Guardian interview with army judge Adrian Agassi reveals in even more detail the influence of religious-nationalist politics on the IDF when it comes to the military's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Agassi, who has a long history of supporting land confiscations from Palestinian owners, declared that the ancient land of Israel was "given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations", and that "if we would have named it the State of Jews [rather than the State of Israel], the Arabs would have understood that this land belongs to the Jews". In his eyes, implanting Jewish settlers across the West Bank is more important than all other biblical commandments, and only when it is done can they have "a promised land and a promised life". With lawyers and judges such as himself at the helm of the military legislature, settler leaders are unlikely to be losing much sleep over the prospect of any serious threat to their wave of illegal construction and land-grabs, despite the slaps on the wrist for the two banner-wielding Shimshon soldiers.
While the rest of Israel fiddles, the West Bank continues to burn – both literally, in the scores of cases of settlers setting fire to the crops and homes of Palestinian farmers, and metaphorically, as the prospects for peaceful resolution go up in smoke the longer the settlers are given free rein to thumb their noses at the law and run riot in the area. On ground level, as well as in the political arena, the authorities seem perfectly content to offer the occasional fig leaf to international pressure to clamp down on the settlers, while never implementing concrete measures to end the overall injustice. Who this charade is fooling is anyone's guess, but the longer it continues, the more certain it becomes that the state's kowtowing to the settlers is driving yet another nail into the peace process's coffin."
Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 October 2009
".....Furthermore, a Guardian interview with army judge Adrian Agassi reveals in even more detail the influence of religious-nationalist politics on the IDF when it comes to the military's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Agassi, who has a long history of supporting land confiscations from Palestinian owners, declared that the ancient land of Israel was "given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations", and that "if we would have named it the State of Jews [rather than the State of Israel], the Arabs would have understood that this land belongs to the Jews". In his eyes, implanting Jewish settlers across the West Bank is more important than all other biblical commandments, and only when it is done can they have "a promised land and a promised life". With lawyers and judges such as himself at the helm of the military legislature, settler leaders are unlikely to be losing much sleep over the prospect of any serious threat to their wave of illegal construction and land-grabs, despite the slaps on the wrist for the two banner-wielding Shimshon soldiers.
While the rest of Israel fiddles, the West Bank continues to burn – both literally, in the scores of cases of settlers setting fire to the crops and homes of Palestinian farmers, and metaphorically, as the prospects for peaceful resolution go up in smoke the longer the settlers are given free rein to thumb their noses at the law and run riot in the area. On ground level, as well as in the political arena, the authorities seem perfectly content to offer the occasional fig leaf to international pressure to clamp down on the settlers, while never implementing concrete measures to end the overall injustice. Who this charade is fooling is anyone's guess, but the longer it continues, the more certain it becomes that the state's kowtowing to the settlers is driving yet another nail into the peace process's coffin."
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