A Plot by the Grandson of Two Senior Rabbis to Carry Out Terrorist Attacks Against Palestinians

The Hebrew media recently broadcast an interview (the date of which was not specified) of the grandson of two high-ranking rabbis, in which he admits to making incendiary devices and explosives in order to carry out nationalistically motivated attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

In the first half of this year, settlers' attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank escalated; as the Palestinian Information Center "Mo3ta" monitored 1,062 attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians, resulting in 3 martyrs.

For many decades, successive Israeli governments have used extremist settler groups to operate in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, providing them with legal cover and financial, political, and military support. These groups have also enjoyed the support of rabbis and committed crimes with impunity.

Occupation police data showed that only 3.8% of the files of settler attacks against Palestinians ended in indictments, according to what Haaretz newspaper reported on February 07, 2022.

The shocking figures confirmed a well-known fact to Palestinians and human rights activists that Israeli settlers operate with impunity in Palestinian territories and with the apparent complicity of Israeli security forces.

It is noteworthy that there are about 650,000 settlers living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

 

Terror Against Palestinians

On August 22, 2022, the Hebrew Kan channel revealed that "the grandson of two senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis, Haredi, had manufactured explosives to arm settlers in order to carry out terrorist operations against Palestinians in the West Bank."

The channel said that the talk is about terrorist "A," who is the grandson of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (died in March 2022) and Rabbi Aharon Steinman (died in December 2017), who are both senior Haredi rabbis.

While "A" admitted, in an interview with the channel, that he turned his room in the religious school located in the Modi'in Illit settlement, west of Ramallah in the central West Bank, into a laboratory for the production of explosives and incendiary devices.

"A" also appeared, explaining to the channel's correspondent in a practical way how to manufacture explosives, stressing that his goal was to arm the hilltop youth with explosives to carry out price tag operations against the Palestinians.

It is noteworthy that Hilltop Youth is a common term for the ultra-nationalist and religious youth of the illegal West Bank settlement outposts.

Also, "price tag" is attacks carried out by extremist Jews on Palestinian property and Islamic and Christian holy sites in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and even inside "Israel."

Kan channel said that "A" was arrested by the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) about a month and a half ago on suspicion of planning to commit a national crime, manufacturing, trading, and possessing weapons and manufacturing explosives.

The channel added that the Shin Bet raided his room in the Yeshiva School in the Modi'in Illit settlement and stopped everything.

"A" told the channel in the interview, which did not mention the date: "The plan was to establish a secret Haredi movement and implement a systematic plan, and not just puncture another car tire in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem."

He added, "each explosive device was made of gunpowder, a gas bottle, and an empty Pringles, at the cost of no more than 40 shekels [about $12]."

He also said, "The plan was to arm the hilltop youth and to put some kind of weapons in each area so that it would be easy to launch them if they wanted to."

Surprisingly, "A" was released shortly after his arrest, to be arrested again on August 19, 2022, after he threatened Israeli police investigators, in addition to threatening to rig his religious school with explosive devices.

 

Strange Sect

The Haredim are a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who practice religious rites and live their daily lives according to the minute details of Jewish law, and their rituals are considered the most heinous and strange.

After the establishment of the Zionist entity on the land of Palestine in 1948, the sect was not more than 1%, but today the percentage of Haredim is 13.6% of the population of the occupation entity, and their number doubles every ten years; it is expected that in 2028 their proportion will be more than one-fifth, and in 2059 they will exceed 34.6% of the total population.

The Haredim live a primitive life. They are prohibited from acquiring modern technological tools such as phones and computers. The women of the sect wear wide black clothes and the niqab, while the men wear distinctive clothing: a black hat, a long black coat, and a white shirt underneath.

In 1998, "Israel" established special Haredi settlements in the West Bank, namely Modi'in Illit settlement between Jerusalem (al-Quds) and Tel Aviv, in which about 90,000 live, Beitar Illit settlement near Jerusalem, in which about 70,000 live, and the Elad settlement, in which about 55,000 live.

Meanwhile, the majority of Haredim live in the city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, numbering about 220,000, in Beit Shemesh in the south, 130,000, and in Ashdod, about 80,000.

The Israeli government plans to establish a new city for Haredi Jews near the city of Beersheba during the coming period.

The new settlement will be built on the lands of the Bedouin village of Tel Arad and other unrecognized Bedouin villages after their Palestinian residents were expelled on the pretext of their illegal residence, and it will accommodate about 100,000 Haredi Jews under the name Kasif.

Some extremist Jewish groups affiliated with the Haredi sect are active in damaging Palestinian property in the West Bank, such as destroying their cars and subjecting them to beatings and violence, including those who live on drug smuggling operations.

In the West Bank, attacks by extremist Israeli settlers increased late last year against Palestinian civilians.

Armed settlers entered the villages to provoke and assault the Palestinian residents, cut down olive trees, and in many cases, damaged cars and attacked people and homes.

All of these incidents are taking place in full view of the Israeli security forces that turn a blind eye and allow the extremist masses to carry out their violent attacks against the indigenous people of the land of Palestine.

 

Extremist Settlers

According to the Hebrew media, it is noted that recently, and specifically, since last March, voices have risen within the Israeli Occupation to bear arms under the pretext of protection and to confront operations in response to the wave of operations that struck the occupied territories during that period.

Since the possession of weapons in the occupying country is relatively strict and is generally granted only to those who can demonstrate the need for more security in their field of work or daily life, Israelis can only own one weapon and 50 bullets.

The hilltop youth gang is an extremist settler group, most of its members, numbering in the thousands, live in outposts and tents on the tops of the mountains of the West Bank. They live in farms and mobile buildings within open areas outside the settlements and on privately owned Palestinian land.

On November 16, 1998, the then Israeli Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon, gave the green light to the establishment of hilltop youth, urging settler youth to take over the hilltops, seeking to thwart peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, in particular, the implementation of the Wye River Memorandum concluded by his political rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Palestinian Authority.

The followers of these gangs, which are the founders of the idea of outposts and pastoral settlement projects, believe in the Greater Land of "Israel."

They considered the Palestinians as intruders and must be expelled from the country to preserve the Jewishness of the state, and they began their terrorist activity in the West Bank, which later expanded to both sides of the Green Line.

With the incursion of the settlement project in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, and Jerusalem, the domination of the settlers over the Israeli right-wing camp, and the international community's attempts to push for a two-state solution, terrorist operations and attacks on Palestinians, their property and lands emerged in 2008.

The attacks took place under the name of price tag and were launched from the Yitzhar settlement, as they came in retaliation against the Palestinians for their role in the popular resistance or the armed operations carried out against the Occupation, as well as in an effort to obstruct any move to renew the negotiations track with the Palestinians.

Since then, hundreds of terrorist operations and attacks on Palestinians are recorded annually, as well as targeting mosques, churches, cemeteries, and archaeological sites whose Arab and Islamic historical monuments are being destroyed and replaced with false Biblical monuments.

In turn, the expert on Israeli affairs, Mr. Ismail Maslamani, explained in a statement to Al-Estiklal that "Israel has always considered the Arabs of the interior as a demographic problem for it, although they obtained Israeli citizenship, they are still a problem, but with a political dimension, especially with their entry into the Knesset."

"After the battle of the sword of Jerusalem, it became clear how there has become a great dilemma in thought and behavior between Arabs and Jews in Israel; that is, there has become a rift between the segments of society and is expanding socially and politically, amid Jewish calls to expel the Arabs of the interior to Jordan or the West Bank," he added.

In response to complaints that the Palestinians' refusal to be expelled from their lands will lead to their number being outnumbered by the Jews in "Israel," Mr. Maslamani explained that "he did not expect that scenario because the Palestinians at home are still 20%, and Israel is still seeking to bring in immigrants from abroad."

"Israel does not accept full equality, which is why it presents itself as a democratic Jewish state, but the last law passed in 2018 is essentially a national law, and it torpedoes everything previously negotiated, including Jerusalem and the language. It also became clear through the law that it is directed at the Jews and that the state is for the Jews," he noted.