Who’s to Blame for the Acts of Israel's Extreme Right Fringe?

[Israeli]

Those who accepted the legal anomaly of the settlements from Day 1 and even encouraged them are suddenly looking in the mirror at the ugliest parts of their faces.

Ravit Hecht Dec 27, 2015

The eye rolling and the right-wing government’s condemnations of the shocking wedding video, at which hilltop youths brandished rifles and knives and stabbed a photo of the murdered toddler Ali Dawabsheh, reflect a hypocrisy that is disingenuous and lacking awareness. Those who encourage constant violations of the law, defend land thefts and maintain different laws for two populations living under the same regime; those who embrace a movement like Im Tirtzu, which disseminates fascist propaganda, and who themselves periodically incite against Arabs and leftists, in the end must take responsibility for the behavior of the deranged hill-dwellers, Israel’s right-wing extremist fringe.

Right-wing elected officials have been expressing support for the Shin Bet security service in recent days, after the agency was accused of torturing suspects under interrogation, and have been cursed by their constituents for this. Beyond the fact that demanding justice in the name of democracy is absurd coming from Itamar Ben-Gvir and his ilk, they cannot be absolved of responsibility for this situation. Those who accepted the legal anomaly of the settlements from Day One and even encouraged them are suddenly looking in the mirror at the ugliest parts of their faces.

Also responsible for the Islamic State-like mutation that has emerged from the hills of Judea and Samaria are the legal authorities, who have allowed Israel to be raped by the right; the diplomatic echelons who enthusiastically populated the settlements established with their approval, or who were persuaded to approve them retroactively after the settlers established facts on the ground; and the courts, which fearfully refrained from acting as a brake by refusing to decide the question of whether the settlements were legal under international law. The outposts that sprung up during the 1990s have turned the territories into a lawless twilight zone that breeds criminal messianic anarchism, and there remain elements in the government who encourage this and call for it to be recognized.

The report on the outposts written by attorney Talia Sasson in 2005 at the request of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, determined that the outposts were erected in violation of the law and with the support of government ministries (like the Housing Ministry) and public agencies (the World Zionist Organization’s settlement division). But the report was addressed in a most limited fashion; while it stopped the establishment of new outposts, it did not result in the destruction of a single one. That report was subsequently superseded by the Edmund Levy report, which in 2012 determined that settlement construction, including the outposts, is legal.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.694143

[FBaggins]

1. The Palestinians of course

At least... that's consistent with the pro -Hamas nonsense I find here.

[azurnoir]

2. and this too shall pass a few bad apples steps taken you know the song