Coteret

In order to understand the dangers of this campaign, and how hypocritical the demand for “freedom of worship” is, it’s important to remember that Yitzhar’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva was originally located at the tomb. Just last week the yeshiva’s dean published “The complete guide to killing non-Jews.”

Back to Joseph’s Tomb

Roi Sharon, Maariv, November 19 2009 [page 6]

The right wing has marked its next target: nine years after the IDF’s withdrawal from Nablus, right wing groups plan to restore the Jewish presence in Joseph’s Tomb.

The new initiative was born as a result of the current security situation in the Palestinian Authority territories, after many roadblocks to the Palestinian cities were removed. After the removal of the Hawara roadblock near Nablus, illegal visits to Joseph’s Tomb increased. Contrary to earlier years, when Joseph’s Tomb worshippers would infiltrate in the depths of night using various bypass roads, in recent months worshippers enter during daylight of day and via the main roads.

The promoters of this initiative are the hill top folks, residents of Samaria’s settlements, rabbis and long time settlers. A group of several dozens has united under the name “the Nablus core,” and in recent days began circulating a position paper which states: “for nine years now Joseph’s Tomb remains burnt, desecrated and abandoned…it is time to remove the stain.”

An epistle to be sent to Samaria residents in the coming days states: “for nine years Joseph’s Tomb has been forsaken and there is no Jewish presence in the city of Nablus. Nine years have passed since the destruction, burning and pogrom. We all recall and are pained with the sight, how hundreds of savages who defeated the Israeli Defense Forces, broke, burned and rejoiced. Have we forgotten? Have we grown despondent? We are determined to change the situation: not to forget. Not to grow despondent.”

“The vicinity of Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva in Nablus today stands abandoned, even though this is Israeli territory according to all opinions and even according to Israel law,” states the letter. “Never has their been an official decision concerning this shameful abandonment, it was executed quickly and unannounced, under pressure, at a time when the IDF was an all time low. Today there is no security impediment to dwelling in the area again, and it is realistically possible to secure the place. Today the roadblocks are all open, and every Arab from Balata enters and leaves Nablus freely, traveling to all destination of Judea and Samaria. And only we shall remain shut out?”

Organizers plan on recruiting as much wide spread support as possible through PR campaigns. As a second phase, organizers plan to pitch a protest tent at the entrance to Nablus. In the future they will attempt a march into the city towards the tomb. In the last phase, a massive entry into the vicinity of the tomb is planned, with the goal being to remain there.

Benny Katzover, who is involved with the initiative, told Ma’ariv last night that “the basic demand to allow Jews free worship is an elementary one which no people in the world would give up, and it is also mandated by the miserable Oslo Accords — just as is the case with Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. We must battle in order to change this intolerable situation, in which this sacred place remains in a state of disgrace, destroyed and shattered, and Jews may enter it only once a month in the dead of night.”

This is from the Friday, November 13 2009 edition of Makor Rishon, a right-wing newspaper (original clipping after the jump.)

Note that one of the leaders, Pinchas Wallerstein, was convicted of killing a Palestinian teenager in 1988. The victim and another youth who survived, were both shot in the back following a 100 yard pursuit. Wallerstein later admitted that the act was not one of self-defense but of deterrence and punishment for the burning of tires on a West Bank road (Zerthal and Eldar: Lords of the Land, pp. 383-385.) More recently, he has proudly proclaimed his role as facilitator of outpost establishment and expansion. Just this week the State Department refused MK Michael Ben-Ari a US visa and yet, apparently, Wallerstein is not only allowed in, but also received at Foggy Bottom.

Settler leaders in PR battle in US against Palestinian State

Hodaya Karish-Hazoni and Hagai Segal, Makor Rishon, November 13, 2009

The prime minister’s latest diplomatic moves, including his meeting this week with Barack Obama, have caused grave concern to settler leaders in Judea and Samaria.  They talk about a “total ideological collapse,” which began with Netanyahu’s Bar Ilan speech and could end in a withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

In internal correspondence that reached Makor Rishon, Etzion Bloc Council Chairman Shaul Goldstein, who visited Washington this week at the time of Netanyahu’s visit there, reports that he met with Netanyahu’s aides, “and I heard great anxiety for the future of the settlements, if we do not rally and try to change direction.”  Goldstein was referring to the desperate need for a vigorous right wing PR campaign against a Palestinian state.  He is convinced that “there is a desire to listen, but there is almost no one to speak, it is all based on volunteer work.”

In other words: PR costs a great deal of money, and there is no body in the right wing that is currently able to raise it.  The large settler campaign from last year—“Judea and Samaria, every Jew’s story”—was abruptly interrupted due to a lack of budget, whereas the public that supports the settlers is still not sufficiently aware of the severity of the situation and is not mobilizing to extend financial aid.

In an emotional letter to the members of the Settlers Council, which was sent this week by Amnon Shapira of the Religious Kibbutz Movement and Professor Elisha Hess from Professors for a Strong Israel, they call to declare a USD 50 million fundraising campaign, but sources in the Settlers Council believe that it will not be possible at the moment to raise even a fifth of this amount.

Meanwhile, small-scale PR activities are being held.  Settlers Council Director General Pinhas Wallerstein recently held a meeting in Washington with senior State Department officials. Goldstein, as stated above, met this week with senior officials in the Obama administration, and consulted former senior officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations.  “You are criminals for not working on PR,” Goldstein quotes reprimands he heard there.

Here in Israel, Settlers Council Chairman Danny Dayan has been holding a series of meetings with foreign ambassadors.  Some of the meetings, such as the one with the British ambassador to Israel, were conducted at the request of the ambassadors.  “The Bar Ilan speech and the adoption of the two-state policy created a large gap between our messages and the government’s messages,” Dayan said yesterday.  “The burden of PR against a Palestinian state and in favor of settling in Judea and Samaria is on our shoulders alone, from now on.”

Read more…

Channel Ten TV’s military affairs correspondent reported Monday evening that “these [see video below] pictures give the IDF a serious headache,” because

They show soldiers who join rioting settlers and using their IDF-issue weapons.  Soldiers manning an observation post of the Etzioni Brigade, which is the Bethlehem brigade, were amazed when their security cameras spotted two of their comrades out there. Corporal Baruch Brandoi of the anti-terror school and Sergeant Nahman Alfasi of the Artillery Corps, both residents of the settlement of Bat Ayin, took their M-16′s and joined their friends on a revenge campaign against the nearby Palestinian village of Hirbat Zafa. The incident took place shortly after the lethal ax attack in Bat Ayin. The settlers wanted revenge. A group of settlers started throwing rocks at the Palestinian village. The Palestinians responded in kind, but then came the two armed soldiers. Brandoi fired 26 rounds and kept firing even after the Palestinians have fled.  Alfasi fired 12 rounds. [Full translated transcript here.]

The “headache” was not bad enough, apparently, for the IDF to put some serious effort into disciplining these soldiers, despite the extraordinary evidence.

Presenting the pictures before the court, the military prosecution argued that the two soldiers were under no life threat and thus had no reason to open fire, but was forced to make a plea bargain deal with them, and each of the shooters was handed down a sentence of 21 days in the military prison.

The de facto parallel hierarchies – military and rabbinical — that the many fundamentalist combat soldiers owe allegiance to have been a major problem for IDF operations in the West Bank for some time. One only needs to skim through Yesh Din‘s numerous publications in order to understand how blurred the lines between the IDF and settler paramilitaries have become.

LATEST UPDATE — August 30 2010: Max Blumenthal reports from a conference supporting the rabbi (older updates at bottom.)

The ultra-fundamentalist Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar is infamous for its involvement in settler violence against Palestinians. Memorably, one of the students fired a homemade “Kassam” rocket at the neighboring village of Burin in June 2008. This morning, Maariv reports that the Yeshiva’s dean has just published on the proscribed dos and don’ts (mainly the former) regarding the killing of gentiles. Here are some choice excerpts.

“In any situation in which a non-Jew’s presence endangers Jewish lives, the non-Jew may be killed even if he is a righteous Gentile and not at all guilty for the situation that has been created…When a non-Jew assists a murderer of Jews and causes the death of one, he may be killed, and in any case where a non-Jew’s presence causes danger to Jews, the non-Jew may be killed…The [Din Rodef] dispensation applies even when the pursuer is not threatening to kill directly, but only indirectly…Even a civilian who assists combat fighters is considered a pursuer and may be killed. Anyone who assists the army of the wicked in any way is strengthening murderers and is considered a pursuer. A civilian who encourages the war gives the king and his soldiers the strength to continue. Therefore, any citizen of the state that opposes us who encourages the combat soldiers or expresses satisfaction over their actions is considered a pursuer and may be killed. Also, anyone who weakens our own state by word or similar action is considered a pursuer…Hindrances—babies are found many times in this situation. They block the way to rescue by their presence and do so completely by force. Nevertheless, they may be killed because their presence aids murder. There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”…In a chapter entitled “Deliberate harm to innocents,” the book explains that war is directled mainly against the pursuers, but those who belong to the enemy nation are also considered the enemy because they are assisting murderers.

A full translation of the Maariv article can be read after the jump.

Read more…