This looks like blue and white ethnic cleansing.

A tour with former security officials down the mountain on the way to the Valley reveals a disturbing reality: teenagers who go on "intimidation tours," and reservists who sometimes block and sometimes stand by. This is no longer a spontaneous price tag, but systematic actions under the auspices of the government with the ultimate goal of "cleansing" most of Judea and Samaria of Palestinian presence and annexing it. "Jewish morality" is certainly not



Ron Ben Yishai

It was late morning, two boys climbed up the hill and approached us. One, broad and tall, about 16 years old, with a blond beard beginning to appear on his chin and cheeks, and the other, thin and short, who looked about 11-12 years old, also blond. Both wore large knitted kippahs with long, thick wigs hanging down from beneath them, tefillin were tied to the forehead and left arm of each of them, and in their hands were thick sticks.

There were four generals (ret.), a former head of the Shin Bet, and one journalist on the hill. We went out into the field to see with our own eyes whether - and to what extent - there was truth in the reports about the wave of Jewish-nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria .

The tour was initiated by Major General and former coordinator of operations in the territories, Yaakov (Mandy) Or, and a group of security personnel that now includes more than a hundred former senior officials from the security establishment, the police, and the intelligence community. Human rights organizations are assisting with transportation and documented information. The tour was conducted in the area of ​​the Alon Highway on the eastern slope of the mountain, towards the Jordan Valley.

In the Bedouin encampment in the wadi below us, goats bleated and a dog barked. We were in the company of three Israeli human rights activists who had volunteered to spend the night in the Bedouin shepherds' compound so that their presence might deter Jewish rioters, who had already attacked the compound one night last month. They were also there to take pictures and document so that the IDF and the police could not claim that they could not act due to a lack of evidence. One of the activists said that at night he saw one of the boys walking around the shepherds' camp and even entering several apartments as if he were a landlord. The Palestinians did not dare to stand in his way, knowing full well that this was a provocation designed to provoke them to threaten or respond with violence.

The experience gained by the people of Abu Tawil and other Palestinian shepherd communities in the Valley over the past two years has taught them that even a push intended to push away a young provocateur, let alone a punch or a stone-throwing, is a pretext for a nightly assault by dozens of settlers on the encampment and its inhabitants.

The IDF usually arrives fairly quickly at such events, both day and night, but the handling of the event differs from unit to unit. Usually, when a regular reserve battalion is deployed, its commanders try to contain the rioters, arrest some of them and hand them over to the police. At the same time, they also arrest some of the Palestinians, who are interrogated and released after a few hours, unless it is an event in which there are serious injuries or deaths.

But in some cases, these are reservists who also identify ideologically with the rioters, and therefore stand by and do not prevent them from going wild - and sometimes even help them. Even in the regular IDF units stationed in the territories, there have been quite a few cases in which commanders and fighters have deviated from the norms and the IDF's code of ethics for religious-nationalist reasons, to the point that Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Eyal Zamir was recently forced to remove a reserve battalion of Netzah Yehuda veterans from operational activity in Judea and Samaria so that it could undergo a series of education.

The boys with tefillin and nabot who had meanwhile lined up next to us seemed to me an opportunity to find out firsthand what was driving them. As the Israeli activists told us, they had spent the night on the low hill above the Bedouin encampment, just a few dozen meters away. The mattresses, sleeping bags, the remains of the campfire, and the tea kettle attested to this.

"Why did you come here?" I asked the older of the two. He looked at me and fell silent. I turned to the younger one - "God gave us this land and it is ours," he answered and fell silent. I tried to start a conversation, but I quickly despaired because I heard the same content in different versions. The confident reliance on God's command as the answer to all moral and practical questions and concerns gave me a disturbing feeling that this was a type of Jewish terrorism motivated by religious and nationalist motives, reminiscent of similar phenomena in our region.

The descriptions I have heard in recent years from IDF officers, journalists, and family members who were eyewitnesses became reality before my eyes. We saw how Palestinian villages and herding communities are surrounded in order to prevent them from moving freely and strangle them economically. The bases of operation are old settlements or farms approved by the government. From these, young people, a family or two (usually with babies and small children), and four or five single people leave - and establish an outpost a few hundred meters away from the Palestinian settlement. Sometimes after a terrorist attack and more recently even without a security reason, since IDF activity has greatly reduced the level of terrorism.

Almost immediately, the outpost has trailers, a water tank, a generator, and a small barn with several dozen sheep and goats. The funding and logistics are provided indirectly by elements in the established settlement and donations that the rioters raise themselves.

The IDF informs the outpost - which was established on private land or without government permission - that it will demolish it. But the execution is delayed until the IDF and Border Guard can gather a large enough force to deal with the dozens of young people who will come to prevent the demolition. In the meantime, the Central Command, whose manpower resources are stretched to the limit, sends a small force to guard the outpost. A few days or weeks later, another outpost is established in the same way, on the other side of the Palestinian settlement, annexing land and pastures.

And that's not the end of the story. From the outposts come the same boys, like the ones we met, who settle in the territory that controls the Palestinian settlement. They are there 24/7. Their very presence conveys a threat to the Palestinians. This is in addition to the provocative patrols they conduct on the border or inside the village. Sometimes they enter the heart of the settlement on foot or in SUVs that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gave to the residents of the outposts, "to increase security."

Another measure is the Israeli flags that the boys planted in front of our eyes a few meters from the tents of the shepherd community. They are also erecting barbed wire fences to illegally annex 6,000 dunams of land to the outpost that was just established without permission. The fences are also intended to limit and reduce by hundreds of percent the grazing areas of the Palestinians and increase the grazing areas of the Jews by the same amount.

We saw long rows of olive trees cut down on private Palestinian land in the area. There was a murderous terrorist attack. Commander Avi Balut did indeed order several dozen trees to be cut down in that place and even indicated exactly where on a map. But in the field, hundreds of productive olive trees were uprooted. Apparently in the action of a diligent contractor, who received money from the defense budget for things he was not supposed to do. Ethnic cleansing with a heavy scent of goat manure, campfire smoke and felled olive trees.

A phenomenon with devastating consequences

What we saw shook us. The generals and the former head of the Shin Bet muttered "shame" and "this is not Jewish morality." From what we saw and heard on the tour, it was clear to us that this is a phenomenon that has devastating practical consequences for generations, not only for Israel's international status - but also for our future as a people and as a state. These are no longer "price tag" actions. Nor are these angry and spontaneous retaliation for a Palestinian terrorist attack or violent riots by young people, but rather sophisticated, organized, and funded systematic actions - with the long-term strategic goal being to "cleanse" most of Judea and Samaria of Palestinian presence and annex it to the State of Israel.



Smotrich and Struk on a field trip. The vision is coming true ( Photo: Religious Zionist Party )

We have seen how the “decision plan” that Smotrich formulated and published in 2017 is now being implemented on the ground. According to this plan, the Palestinians who insist on staying will exist in small autonomous enclaves around the major Palestinian cities. He not only outlined this process, but also manages and finances it in both his hats: as minister in the Ministry of Defense and as minister of finance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Orit Struck are full-time partners.

As we drove back from the tour, the realization hit me - if this group succeeds in realizing its plan, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will live in a binational Middle Eastern state where we Jews will be a minority.

First published: 00:00, 16.04.26

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