As West Bank violence surges, Israel is silent on attacks by Jews

A gang of a dozen or so armed Jewish settlers descended from a hilltop outpost to the Palestinian village below and opened fire, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers arrived, and instead of stopping the settlers, the witnesses said, they either stood by or clashed with the villagers.

In the melee, Hamdy Naasan, 38, a Palestinian father of four, was shot and killed.

The killing late last month was the latest in a wave of settler violence. Attacks by settlers on Palestinians, their property and Israeli security forces increased by 50 percent last year and have threatened to ignite the West Bank, Israeli security officials say.

Days earlier, Israeli authorities charged a 16-year-old yeshiva student from another Jewish settlement with manslaughter and terrorism, accusing him of hurling a 4-pound rock that killed Aisha al-Rabi, a Palestinian mother of eight, in October.

While Palestinian and United Nations officials have condemned the violence — Nickolay Mladenov, the UN envoy to the Middle East, described the shooting in al-Mughayyir as “shocking and unacceptable” — Israel’s right-wing government has remained conspicuously silent, wary of alienating settlers and other potential supporters in an election year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking a fifth term, is vying with other right-wing rivals for the settlers’ support.

“Everyone sees the election on the horizon, and the settler lobby is stronger than any moral standard,” Tamar Zandberg, leader of the left-wing party Meretz, wrote in a Facebook post noting the lack of condemnation from government officials.

By contrast, after a Palestinian home in the village of Duma was firebombed in 2015, killing a toddler and his parents, Netanyahu and right-wing leaders issued strong condemnations and said Jewish terrorism would not be tolerated.

This time the loudest voices have risen to the defence of the Jewish suspects. Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, has found itself on the defensive, accused by right-wing organisations of trampling on the rights of those suspected in the stoning.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called the mother of one detainee, telling her to “be strong.” One legislator from the governing Likud party compared the Shin Bet to the KGB. Four of the youths were ultimately released.

Netanyahu rebuffed the attacks on Shin Bet, praising its efforts to thwart Palestinian terrorism, but did not address the settler violence.

© 2019 New York Times News Service