The Guilty Must Be Punished

The attacks in the Palestinian villages of Qusra and Jalud over the past month are indefensible. Masked Israelis descended on homes, threw stones, set fires, and attacked residents and journalists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the violence “criminal.” President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned it, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry called it “a disgrace.” They are right. Israel is confronting the problem, but condemnation alone is not enough. The question is what more can be done to stop the group responsible.

First, some terminology. In Judea and Samaria, a chava, or farm, is not merely a picturesque collection of sheep, olive trees, and young pioneers. Agricultural farms have become a strategic instrument for establishing an Israeli presence across large tracts of land with the express consent of the IDF. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has championed this model as a way to preserve land for Israeli control. Supporters see Zionism in work boots. Critics see a mechanism for taking control of territory without the cumbersome machinery of formal settlement planning. Whatever one’s politics, the farms exist within a legal and security environment that the government cannot ignore.

Around some of these farms has grown the phenomenon known as Noar HaGevaot, the “Hilltop Youth.” The name is almost romantic. It conjures up sun-baked idealists building the Land of Israel with their bare hands. They dress the part: long sidelocks, knitted skullcaps, and ritual fringes flying in the wind. Most are minors or very young adults. Some are problem children who have run away from home to seek refuge on a barren hilltop with other like-minded youth. A small number cross the line from youthful rebellion into outright criminality. They wrap lawlessness in religious jargon and right-wing fervor, as if a verse from the Bible can turn a rock thrown through a window into an act of holiness.

It cannot. Judaism does not grant immunity from Israeli law. Zionism does not mean doing whatever one wants on the nearest hill. Love of the Land of Israel does not include terrorizing its Arab residents or assaulting journalists. When young people invoke sacred values while behaving like a street gang, they do more than injure their immediate victims. They profane the values they claim to defend.

That distinction matters because the overwhelming majority of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria are law-abiding citizens. They raise families, serve in the army, pay taxes, and go to work. The troublemakers are a marginal fringe, but their actions receive enormous attention. Every masked attacker becomes another photograph, another headline, and another opportunity to implicate an entire community. Blaming hundreds of thousands of Israelis for the actions of a handful of delinquents is both lazy and wrong. Israel must punish the guilty so that the innocent can live their lives untainted.

Israel is already fighting an uphill battle in the court of international opinion. Images of Jews attacking Palestinian civilians inflict real damage on Israel’s standing and weaken the moral case made by those who defend Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. But the international reaction often goes much further, treating the actions of a marginal group as representative of an entire people and country. Israel has condemned the incidents at the highest levels and deployed security forces to confront them. Rather than acknowledge these actions, critics excoriate Israel as if the violence were national policy. It is not. Israel can and should do more, but it should not be collectively indicted for the crimes of a few.

The IDF is deployed in Judea and Samaria to defeat terrorism and protect lives. My son-in-law will soon leave his wife and three children to serve 100 days in the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, rooting out terror cells in the Tulkarm Refugee Camp. He is not leaving to spend his time as a glorified babysitter. The IDF cannot simultaneously serve as police officer, social worker, and truant officer for every unruly teenager on every hilltop. The primary responsibility for dealing with Israeli civilians, even those residing in Judea and Samaria, belongs squarely in the bailiwick of the Israel Police. That means responsibility ultimately rests with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Israeli authorities do act, and Israel’s leaders have unequivocally condemned the violence. Still, more can and should be done. Ben-Gvir lives in Judea and Samaria, understands the terrain, and knows how much damage these criminals inflict on the community they claim to represent. He should explicitly make combating this phenomenon a high priority and state clearly that violence committed in the name of Zionism is an affront to Zionism.

Those who break the law should be arrested. Those who organize or finance violence should be investigated. Palestinian residents and law-abiding Israeli farmers alike deserve protection from criminals. A sovereign state is measured not only by its condemnation of wrongdoing but also by its willingness to enforce the law against those responsible. When a few dozen teenagers on remote hilltops can do more damage to Israel’s reputation than a battalion of Hamas propagandists, something has gone badly wrong. Israel must prove that these hoodlums are not untouchable. Not for the Palestinians. Not for the cameras. For Israel.

Good Things,

Ari Sacher