Settler Violence: Think Of It Like Burning Down A Jewish Business

[Purveyor]

Imagine a series of attacks on shops and businesses in your city. Every night, a gang of hooligans breaks windows, damages goods and sets fire to a different store.

Now imagine that this same gang only targets businesses owned by a specific group of people – say, a chain of local stores owned and operated by blacks or Jews. The attacks go on for years and only worsen with time. If the store owner happens to be there, he or she is beaten and left bleeding at the front door.

In the United States and Europe these kind of acts would be deemed “hate crimes.” In Israel, the targeting of, say, Jewish-owned businesses would be decried as an act of “terror” by politicians and the press. If the problem persists, it may even become an internationally-recognized issue. Petitions will be signed. Ambassadors will be called to explain. Communities will mobilize.

For a Palestinian farmer, the olive grove is his business.

The past several years have seen thousands of trees burned, cut down or damaged in dozens of incidents, including “price tag attacks” – a form of vandalism or property destruction, sometimes carried out in protest of a certain governmental decision that the perpetrators don’t like, and sometimes for no reason other than hate. Farmers have been shot at, beaten, and have had their cars burned. Some have suffered severe injuries, others have lost the little property they own. For almost everyone, the yearly olive harvest – taking place this time of year – has become a time of deep fear and anxiety.

MORE...

http://972mag.com/settler-violence-think-of-it-like-burning-down-a-jewish-business/81133/

[Link Speed]

1. If it was the other way around

we would be giving Israel military aid faster than they could spend it.

Oh...

wait.....

nevermind

[shira]

2. The other way around is Palestinian terror (stones, rockets) vs. Israeli innocents...

..with the pro-Palestinian crowd here running interference for the violence, explaining it away, or justifying it.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. Now that you have that out of your system tell us about the IDF terrorists

shooting Palestinians in the back.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. When are the usual hand wringers going to be by to tsk tsk about 972?

They do that because if they were to actually enter into a dialog about the article they know they would be in a losing position.

[Purveyor]

4. Shouldn't be long now and I can hardly wait for the sniveling, snot blowing fest. ;) eom

[Shaktimaan]

7. Not really.

The reason price tag attacks aren't considered terrorism is because they're not terrorism. This has been widely discussed in Israel in the Knesset and media as most everyone was so disgusted with this behavior that they explored changing the law to include it as terrorism.

Here's the problem. If every person who commits an act of racially inspired property damage or minor assault is legally committing terrorism then you open a doorway for unbridled opportunities for prosecution (persecution), of every protester who hits a car with a stone. Without doing anything to address the problem.

The idf isn't there to maintain order. It's not their job. They're there to keep the settlers from getting killed. Which is why they only prosecute like 8% of settlers who do this shit.

It's a policy change issue. Which will surely happen. Price tag attacks are a fairly recent phenomenon and it's sparking a lot of outrage in Israel. The answer is to aggressively police settlers. Not equating stone throwers with suicide bombers.

Edit: I looked this up and it seems that after some WAY more violent attacks this summer they went ahead and passed that law anyway. I still think it's a bad long term move, but the OP asks "why don't we consider the price tag settlers terrorists?" I guess we do.

Actually the guy who threw a firebomb against a taxi driver is clearly a terrorist. That's easy.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. Like Jim KKKrow in the old south.

From the article.

Why isn’t the targeting of Palestinian olive trees considered an act of terror, given that for many these trees are their livelihood? Surely the White House would issue a statement condemning a string of attacks on Jewish businesses in Tel Aviv, London or New York – so what makes Palestinians less worthy of our concern?

When it comes to Palestinian businesses, it seems that both the government and the mainstream media prefer to turn a blind eye. At worst, they purposefully hide the information from us.

It’s time to wake up to the reality in the West Bank and view these attacks on Palestinians and their livelihoods for what they are.

We wouldn't allow something like this going on in America, but American transplants...AKA Israeli settlers...do it with gusto.

What's worse is that the USA will be paying Israel going on 40bn over the next decade, and our politicians don't have the balls to say stop.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. Have you noticed out some stay away from this post like the plague?

They want it to drop like a lead balloon. Some things cannot be defended easily by the apartheid crowd.