A lot has already been said about the despicable murder of a sleeping family in the settlement of Itamar on Friday night. A lot has also been said about what has been said about the murder. In particular, I’d like to point to Dimi Reider’s critique over at +972 about the lousy response from most of the activist Left, and to the pointed words of Rehavia Berman (Hebrew), with which I agree entirely. (As he says, the state has to, unfortunately, apprehend the murder, try them, and let them rot in jail — “unfortuantely” because the barbarous killer deserves to be tortured extensively and left alive, perhaps after removing some useful organs like hands, feet and eyes. But alas the state has no right to do that kind of thing and really shouldn’t exercise justice in that way.)
I just wanted to point out something particularly intriguing: the government’s lightning-fast decision to approve a bunch of new settlement houses in the West Bank in response to the heinous attack. As far as I’m aware, this is the first time the Israeli government admits that construction in the settlements is an attack against Palestinians. How surprising that they aren’t constructed purely out of love of the land!
Remember the young man who was murdered in the last week of February? A young Palestinian man, whose murder by four settlers (one from Itamar) was deemed manslaughter rather than murder by Israel’s police? The one whose body was held by Israel’s police because they insisted on a night-time funeral with no more than ten people in attendance?
I think an appropriate response to the attack/counter-attack is to remove the settlers from their illegal outposts. They engage in constant pogroms against the local Palestinians (both attacks on people and on property) and flout both law, custom, and human decency.
I thought of another way of saying something quite similar.
This. By Idan Lando. http://idanlandau.com/2011/03/14/lost-memories-from-itamar/
Yes. I highly recommend that post. Landau does a great public service yet again. :)