When two Israeli brothers, Hilel Menachem Yaniv (21) and his brother Yigal Yakov Yaniv (19), who were driving near the Arab town of Huwara in the West Bank, were murdered by a Palestinian gunmen, Israeli settlers living nearby – having endured the news of several major attacks on Jews by Palestinians in recent months – finally snapped. Several hundred settlers – that is, residents of towns outside Israel’s Green Line – showed up in Huwara to demonstrate their grief and their fury over the murders of the brothers. At least 15 homes were damaged in Huwara, some from the rocks that were thrown at them, and others from being set on fire; they also torched at least 25 Arab cars. One Palestinian was shot dead; the circumstances of his death have not been made public. As soon as the rampage began, the IDF immediately went into action, rounding up those settlers it believed took part in these attacks and holding them for further investigation. The army announced that it was treating those settlers’ attacks as “acts of terrorism.” Some of those held have, after investigation, been released, while others are now under house arrest. And the Israeli public has been raising money for the Palestinians whose property was damaged in the riots. More on the Israeli reaction to this event can be found here: “Israelis Raise Over 1 Million Shekels for Palestinian Victims of Huwara Riots in Fundraising Campaign,” by Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, February 28, 2023:
An Israeli fundraising effort to help those affected by the riots that took place in the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday has already surpassed its goal of raising 1 million shekels for local Palestinian residents whose property was destroyed by dozens of Israeli settlers.
Close to 9,300 Israelis have donated more than 1.3 million shekels to the crowdfunding campaign, which started the morning after the attack and will continue for two weeks. With the amount already collected every local family and business affected by the riots will likely receive several tens of thousands of shekels, the fundraiser’s organizer, Labour Party member Yaya Pink, said Monday on Twitter.
In less than two days the Israeli fundraisers have collected 1.3 million shekels to reimburse the Palestinians for any damage that the rampaging settlers caused; in the remaining 12 days of the crowdfunding, assuming it continues at the same pace, it is likely that another 8 million shekels will be collected. The total of Israeli funds that will be used to pay the Palestinians for every bit of damage to their houses or cars will thus amount to 9.3 million shekels, or $2.5 million dollars.
Pink, who also said he has received death threats and faced verbal harassment for trying to raise money for Huwara locals, wrote on the fundraiser’s webpage that “even out of enormous rage and terrible pain … we, as Jews, must not” engage in violence. “We must allow the security forces to do the job they know how to do well,” he noted, and additionally wrote in the description for the fundraiser, “As a religious person and as a Zionist, this is not my Judaism.”…
During the riots, hundreds of Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to dozens of residential homes in Huwara, at least 15 homes were damaged and over 25 cars were torched. Several Palestinians were injured by rioters including at least two who were shot, another person who was stabbed and a fourth victim was struck with an iron bar, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent medical service.
It’s hard to know which of these claims about Palestinian casualties we should believe. It is undeniable that at least one Palestinian was shot dead, almost certainly by a settler. The Palestinian Red Crescent has a record that does not inspire confidence, including allowing its ambulances to be used by Hamas to ferry terrorists and their weapons around. The true figure of Palestinian dead and wounded in Huwara is still to be determined. But if the Palestinian Red Crescent announces there were only four injured – two shot, a third stabbed a fourth hit with an iron bar — one can assume that is the highest number of casualties in Huwara on February 26. The settlers did considerable property damage, but there was nothing like the murderous rampages — damage to life and limb — that the world media is suggesting.
To recapitulate: two Israeli brothers were murdered as they drove in a car near the Arab village of Huwara. News of their deaths sent hundreds of settlers, consumed with grief and rage, rampaging through Huwara. They threw rocks and set fires, damaging 15 houses. They set fire to two dozen cars. The IDF immediately appeared to stop their violence, and to take into custody settlers believed to have been involved in attacks on Palestinian property. Some have been released, but depending on what the investigation reveals, may be rearrested. Others are under house arrest. The Israeli government intends to prosecute those it believes are guilty. There was no need for the Bidenites to haughtily tell the Israelis, as they did, that the U.S. “expects Israel” to prosecute the settlers. Israel doesn’t need lessons in how to handle malefactors. The Bidenites could have said, in language less insulting, that “We have every confidence that the government of Israel will prosecute those responsible for the mayhem in Huwara on Sunday night.”
Meanwhile, some Israelis have taken to talking hysterically about the “pogrom” in Huwara. The Israeli general in charge of IDF forces in the West Bank told Channel 12 news that “what happened in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by law-breakers. We were not ready for a pogrom on the scale of dozens of people with flammable material and the means to set it on fire, heading to 20 or more places — as well as confronting soldiers and commanders and police at the junction — and setting random Palestinian homes and cars on fire.” The far-left newspaper Haaretz was even more outrageous, headlines its article on the property-destroying rampage “Israeli Settlers’ Huwara Pogrom Was a Preview of Sabra and Chatila 2.”
Damage to property alone does not rise to the level of “pogrom.” The attacks on 15 houses and 25 cars, however deplorable (and Israelis are already gathering millions of shekels to make whole all the property owners who suffered losses) has nothing in common with the mass murders of Jewish men, women, and children carried out by the antisemitic Black Hundreds in Russia in what is correctly called a “pogrom.” Furthermore, the massacres at Sabra and Chatila, two Palestinian refugee camps, were carried out not by the IDF, but by the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia led by Elie Hobeika, that kept the Israelis in the dark as to its ulterior intentions.
It is instructive to compare how the Israelis are now behaving, after what was, after all, a crime of property. They are full of shame and chagrin, as they ought to be, over the setters’ rampage. They are collecting money to give to those Palestinians who suffered damage to their homes and their cars. No Israeli crowds have gathered to scream their satisfaction at what happened in Huwara. No Israelis have been handing out sweets to celebrate the settlers’ rampage, the way the Palestinians do after Israeli civilians have been murdered. No fireworks were set off, no Israeli women were ululating with pride.
Between the Palestinians and the Israelis, there is a world of difference. The shame expressed by the Israelis over the property damage the settlers caused in Huwara has no equivalent response among the Palestinians who are glad to murder Israelis. They are proud of their terrorists and their homicidal handiwork. And when Palestinian terrorists are caught and put in an Israeli prison, the Palestinian leaders grant them generous subsidies. If they are killed while trying to kill Israelis, their families will receive the subsidies instead. This is the Palestinians’ “Pay-For-Slay” program. No shame and no remorse about the murder of Israelis. The Palestinians’ only regret is that still more of the hated Zionists had not been slain.
See the difference between Palestinians and Israelis? Yes, I thought you would.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Looks like ordinary Jews are doing in Israel what ordinary Hindus did in India after the murders of innocent Jews and Hindus, in that order (the latter being after the Nupur Sharma cases last year. Governments, be it in Israel, India, Sweden, Britain or anywhere else who think that pandering or appeasing muslims is the solution, should be warned that there will come a point when their countries will erupt into civil war, they’ll be powerless to stop it and that it will ultimately result in the collapse of their regimes
kq6kq6kq6 says
King David said, “I hate them with perfect hatred.” (Psalm 139:22).
I don’t think the Israelis should have bothered.
What did they do for the families of the two Israeli brothers?
OLD GUY says
Pandering to the enemy only emboldens them.
Dean says
Seems to me those Israelis are simply the tip of the spear!
SJ says
Exactly why I’m completely disgusted with the insanity of the Israelis that are engaging with donating, and they’re ridiculous claims of pogroms. However, who in the Israeli government decided to charge the Israeli protesters? And WHY are they unconcerned about the two brothers killed by these IslamoNazis?
And Biden? His State Department of Islamists has been infiltrated, and Biden supports it. Eff him! He wants to create a world without Jews, or Christians for that matter. I can’t wait for this administration to be GONE!
GrannyA says
Amen to that.
TruthSeeker says
Arabs are not “Palestinians” and even rejected this term, which was related to JEWS, living under the British mandate, back in the Pell committee, 1937.