Fresh Air

A report in the Australian (Aug. 27) about a resolution passed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry condemning attacks by extremist elements of the settler movement against West Bank Palestinians and their property labelled this decision a “significant step” and quoted members of the Muslim community calling the resolution “unprecedented.”

While the resolution is welcome and it may or may not prove to be significant, it is definitely far from “unprecedented”.

All mainstream Jewish community organisations in Australia, including AIJAC, have previously published statements condemning settler violence, and urging Israeli security agencies to act decisively against those who perpetrate such attacks.

Some examples from AIJAC include:

• AIJAC’s statement earlier this month regarding the deadly attack on the Palestinian village of Jit on August 15;
• AIJAC’s February 2023 statement criticising extremist violence against the Palestinian town of Hawara, which AIJAC condemned “ strongly”, labelling it “criminal behaviour contrary to both Israeli law and Jewish values” (this is similar language to the ECAJ resolution  which spoke of actions “criminal under Israeli law” and “completely antithetical to Jewish values”);
• Australia/Israel Review (AIR) Editor in Chief Tzvi Fleischer’s commentary about the same incident in the April  2023 issue of the AIR, calling it “horrific and indefensible”;
• My own February 2022 blog about the measures that Israel was taking at that time to address the problem of settler violence:
• AIJAC’s July 2015 statement against the deadly attack on the Palestinian village of Duma.

More importantly, however, Israeli leaders across the political spectrum are condemning these attacks and Israeli news organisations are reporting on it, raising consciousness and building momentum in Israeli society to crack down on lawlessness and criminality by radical contingents associated with the fringes of the settler movement.

Using just the example of the August 15 attack in Jit, and putting aside the reliably extensive coverage from the left-wing Ha’aretz, we’ve also seen prominent coverage not only in mainstream English but also in the centrist Hebrew press including from Yedioth Ahronoth‘s Oded Shalom (Aug. 23), who reported in a feature-length article last weekend:

“The IDF and Shin Bet no longer refer to these incidents as “nationalist crime” but rather call them acts of terrorism. Conversations with professionals in law enforcement reveal the severity of the internal threat facing Israel—a threat that undermines law and order, challenging state institutions and enforcement authorities. What began as secret “price tag” operations by a few young men has evolved into loud, organised operations involving hundreds.”

While a preliminary investigation into the incident (N12, Aug. 17) determined that the level of IDF intervention might have been inadequate, Avi Ashkenazi, reporting for Ma’ariv (Aug. 26) on the same incident, revealed a more detailed [IDF] investigation showed that the IDF had set up checkpoints at local intersections to try and thwart the attack, and when that failed, “reserve fighters of the 551st Brigade acted at risk and saved the lives of Palestinian civilians who were trapped in the houses that caught fire.”