Arming the Settlers: The Israeli Occupation Policy That Licenses the Killing of Palestinians

The recent Jerusalem operation, carried out by the young Khairi Alqam, put the new Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu in a major dilemma, embarrassing him in front of the settler public, especially since the operation was large and painful and came at a sensitive time that makes it difficult to overcome.

This isolated operation, in which 8 Israelis were killed, came in retaliation for 9 Palestinians killed by the Israeli Occupation soldiers in the Jenin camp, and comes in light of the tense atmosphere that the Netanyahu government is experiencing with its internal public.

To contain their anger, he vowed to respond with a “heavy hand” and take a series of punitive measures, including a pledge to arm thousands of Israeli settlers.

It is not the first time it has been threatened to facilitate the arming of settlers living in settlement outposts inside the cities of the occupied West Bank.

A number of extremist ministers preceded Netanyahu, most notably the Minister of Public Security at the time, Yitzhak Aharonovich, when he decided in 2014 to facilitate and increase the arming of settlers.

Less than a week after Aharonovich’s decision to “facilitate and increase the armament of the Israeli public,” specifically in Jerusalem (al-Quds), the number of Israelis buying weapons has increased tenfold compared to the normal turnout.

The decision came as no surprise to Palestinians, who are used to seeing settlers on the main streets between cities armed with the most sophisticated weapons.

 

Huge Numbers

According to Israeli security figures reported by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, about 148,000 Israeli settlers and citizens currently hold a license to carry weapons, and this large number does not include Israeli soldiers, Israeli policemen, guards, and others.

The newspaper added that 86 out of 100 towns have a high percentage of weapon bearers. Where there are settlements in the West Bank, the highest percentage of weapon bearers lies—the percentage reaches a third of its population.

Haaretz pointed out that the settlement of Ari’el leads the percentage of weapon bearers by about 9.2%, and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim by 6%, followed by the village of al-Maghar by a similar percentage, and in contrast, the percentage of weapon bearers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is approximately 1.5%, and in Haifa by 1.8%.

The decision to arm the settlers is a great danger to the lives of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, as it comes as a green light that allows settlers to commit murder and summary execution of any Palestinian without no punishment or accountability, violating all humanitarian and international laws.

Esmat Mansour, a Palestinian expert in Israeli affairs, said that the phenomenon of recent individual operations carried out by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the occupied territories is difficult for the Israeli Occupation to stop, so the Occupation resorted to a policy of arming settlers to confront the resistance and the perpetrators of attacks.

In media statements, Mansour said that the threat to arm the settlers is an implicit declaration that the Netanyahu government and the Israeli security establishment are powerless to confront the attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

 

‘New Tool’

Netanyahu does not have new tools to prevent Palestinian operations or different tools than the previous government had, so he is looking for new decisions to contain the anger of the Israeli public.

The repercussions of the decision to arm are serious, especially in light of the incitement through continuous hate speech, which will turn daily friction with the Palestinians into an Israeli whim, and thus make every Israeli feel that he has a license to kill Palestinians.

The decision will possibly create negative phenomena, including arms trafficking, which may lead to the slide of some Palestinians in this field, which will be dangerous for them.

While the Israeli Occupation works to facilitate the carrying of weapons by settlers, it monitors and prosecutes any Palestinian who manufactures or owns weapons.

The Israeli Occupation fights the arrival of weapons to the Palestinians by besieging the sources of smuggling, financing, and trade in them and records successes in that.

Everything that passes through the process of transferring weapons between Palestinians is under its lookout, so that it distinguishes the weapon of resistance and ignores the weapon of internal disputes.

There is great control over Palestinians who carry weapons, as anyone who obtains or manufactures a weapon is prosecuted, so that his sentence is extensive with long-time imprisonment.

 

Discrimination History

Since the British Mandate, there has been considerable discrimination in favor of Jews, as their possession of weapons freely has contributed to crimes against Palestinians.

The beginning was when the British government allowed a Zionist committee led by Chaim Weizmann to supervise the conditions of the Jews in Palestine, facilitate their entry, and assist them in the construction of emerging Jewish colonies through military orders and the imposition of legislation, and that committee formed a link between the Jews and the British authorities.

Even the Jews in Palestine occupied in that period most of the senior positions in the government of Palestine, which came under the authority of Britain.

The British authorities allowed the Zionist Committee to establish a special guard to protect the colonies, so the Zionist movement established in June 1921 the Haganah Self-Defense Units.

Meanwhile, the British authorities armed and trained Jews and provided them with weapons, and condoned their smuggling of weapons to facilitate their access to them.

On the other hand, since the early twenties of the last century, the British authorities subjected all Palestinian territories to the control of the British army and stood against any attempts or efforts to arm the Palestinians.

They enacted laws prohibiting their access to weapons or their acquisition of them, and severely punished anyone who owned just a gun, as the sentence for those who carry weapons was up to death.

For example, there is a file in the archives of the British Colonial Office dating back to 1929, the period of the Buraq al-Sharif incidents, and it is supposed to be published in 1979, but the British postponed its publication at that time because it harmed the reputation of some living English, Arabs or living Jews, or that the English had carried out acts contrary to international laws.

The Buraq al-Sharif incidents between Muslims and Jews took place on August 23, 1929, and the British admitted in their documents that “the dead Arabs were killed by English guns, while the dead Jews were the result of stabbing with knives and batons.” The British admit in the same document that they were the ones who armed the Jews.

In conclusion, the repetition of the punitive measures followed by “Israel” since its occupation of the Palestinian territories, which it inherited from the British Mandate, is nothing but a “declaration of bankruptcy for the Netanyahu government” to appease the settlers and convince them that it provides them with security and protection, in light of the escalating individual resistance operations that reveal the fragility of the Israeli security system.