War Handwavium

Quick background: International law is clear that Israel’s “settlements” on Palestinian land are illegal:

“Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [... and] have been established in breach of international law.”

International Court of Justice Ruling, July 9, 2004

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article7

There are currently a quarter million to half a million Jews (depending on how you count)  living on Palestinian land. Every single Jewish “Settler” is a roadblock to an eventual implementation of the two-state peace process. As I’ve mentioned before, Israel doesn’t want a two-state solution, it wants all the land for itself, so what it does is it “Settles” Palestinian land with Jews.

The sequence goes like this: Israel “claims” a chunk of Palestinian land, it then authorizes some number of Jewish “settlers” to move in to that land. The “Settlers” go in, kick out the Palestinians, tear down the old buildings and put up new structures. If Palestinians refuse to go along with the land confiscation, the “Settlers” will “encourage” them to leave. If that fails, the Israeli Defense Force will evict them by bulldozer if need be.

And if the “settlers” have to take matters into their own hands and violently remove the Palestinians from their own lands, the Israeli government almost never convict a Jewish civilian of committing a crime against a Palestinian on Palestinian land.

http://www.peacenow.org/policy.asp?rid=&cid=3102

According to OCHA, 80-90% of the files opened against Israeli settlers following attacks on Palestinians and their property are regularly closed by the Israeli police without prosecution. (http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article7)

Unfortunately, due to almost complete complicity by the Israeli government in dismissing any charges, the true statistics are hard to come by. In a three year period from ending in 2004, Jewish Invader/Squatters had killed 34 Palestinians. In some of these cases, the Jewish civlian was acting in self defense. But in many cases it was violence instigated by the Jewish civilian. Jewish invader/squatters also shoot solar panels on roofs of buildings, torch automobiles, shatter windowpanes and windshields, destroy crops, uproot trees, abuse merchants and owners of stalls in the market.

http://www.btselem.org/english/Settler_Violence/Nature_of_the_Violence.asp

Hamas killed a total of 17 Israelis in 2008. These 17 deaths were used by Israel to justify a bombardment and invasion of Gaza that killed 600 Palestinian civilians. These 17 deaths were used by Israel to prove that Hamas intends to make good on its vow to destroy Israel and qualifying Hamas as a terrorist organization.

But if 17 deaths qualifies you as a terrorist organization, then it sort of makes you wonder why Hamas are called “terrorists” while the Jews living illegally on Palestinian land, killing a similar number of Palestinians are called “Settlers”.

So, then I got to thinking, what the hell does this have to do with “settlers”? You say the word “Settler” to an American, and they may think of Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower.

These Jewish civilians are being used as human sheilds to invade and then claim Palestinian land. The degree of complicity between the Jewish “Settlers” and the Israeli Police Force and Israeli Defense Force is sufficient to demonstrate that Israel uses these Jewish civilians as militant vigilante enforcers against Palestinians who refuse to surrender their land. Once in place, these Jewish vigilante’s become “civilians” which then prevents any sort of military response against the invasion.

Have an Israeli “Settlement” take place exactly as it does now, except put the civilians into military uniforms, and it would clearly be labeled an invasion by anyone watching. The fact that these Jewish civilians get protection from the IDF and IPF by failing to prosecute any and all forms of vigilantism qualifies these civilians for a new name.

Don’t call them Jewish Settlers, call them the Jewish Militia as they deserve: civilians operating as a non-uniformed arm of the Israeli Defense Force.