2006-02-07-jewish

By Ira Sharkansky

We are currently being roiled by religious nationalists (otherwise known by their knitted skullcaps) over charges that the police were brutal when they cleared a half-dozen buildings from the settlement of Amona in the West Bank.

The police were more forceful than when sent to evacuate isolated hilltop trailers. Then they were armed only with their hands. In each case they had to seize and carry a dozen or so young protesters kicking and screaming off the property. This time they faced more than a thousand protesters, who swore their intense opposition. The religious commandos, mostly between the ages of 14 and 20, mounted the roofs of the buildings and armed themselves with stones, concrete blocks, staves, and who know what else.

The police and army reinforcements, also in their thousands, gathered the night before and waited until dawn. At 3 AM political leaders of the settlers submitted yet another petition to the Supreme Court. Over the years there had been several efforts at negotiation. The Court had already denied several motions, and ordered the destruction to proceed. The "new idea" presented at 3 AM won a more or less automatic temporary stay from the judge on duty for emergencies, but at 8 AM a three judge panel rebuked the settler leaders for their dilatory actions. Settlers responded by saying that the government was not willing to talk, and that the Court was nothing but a left-wing flunky.

At 9 AM the police moved in with horses and staves. They did not carry any other weapons, and did not use dogs or tear gas. The protesters threw everything they had onto the police, sought to topple ladders with police on them, and kicked those who fell during the struggle. The 200 or so injured included both police and protesters. Knesset Member Effie Eitam claimed his bloodied head came from a police baton. Most injuries were light or moderate. To my knowledge, only one protester was injured critically, and he has since improved.

A couple of days later, police reported that their review of films showed Eitam distant from police at the time of his injury, and surmised that he was hit by a protester's rock. While he claimed to be working to calm the protest, the police reported that he was heard shouting, "Don't throw stones at me." A cartoon in Ha'aretz showed Eitam visiting a physician, and asking if he could keep his head bandaged until the election.

Watching all this on real time television coverage was bad enough. Worse was the blather of what we have heard since then: police brutality against some of the best youngsters Israel has produced, a refusal to compromise, and deafness toward an important segment of the population that is being alienated by the government's posture toward Jews who wish to settle in the Land of Israel. A protest meeting in the center of Jerusalem attracted tens of thousands. Settler leaders charged, among other things, that police officers touched female protestors improperly (while they were dragging them away), and said sexually nasty things to them.

I have had some interchanges with religious nationalist friends, and find myself saddened at the mental closure of people who I perceived to be moderate and reasonable. According to them, the Israeli police were more violent than anything apparent in the United States or Europe! Included in the comparison were police responses to anti-Vietnam protests, the Democratic Convention in 1968, and the red nasties in Europe during the same period.

What settlers and their allies overlook is that, when dealing with Arab protesters, the police carry their firearms and occasionally use them. Dogs and gas are not used when dealing with Jews, seemingly because of unfortunate associations with the Nazis. Even staves and horses are rare, and employed only when the temper of protestors is especially high.

Are we in for a serious clash, perhaps even the civil war that emotional observers have anticipated?

There is, of course, no obvious answer about the future. It is important to remember that these events are occurring two months before an election. Secular as well as religious parties are trying to arouse their constituencies. The primary political party of the settlers (National Religious Party), has split between moderate and extreme factions, and in some polls its moderate remnant has been close to the line where it might not win enough votes to enter the Knesset. One commentator said that rabbis have lost control to a group of 14 year olds.

It is not a simple case of "religious" versus "secular." The ultra-Orthodox, who comprise about one-half of the religious population, are not involved. Shabbat and graves, autopsies, and money for their schools are more important to them than arguments about the Land of Israel. The large number of "traditional" working class, Sephardi Jews, mostly observant but mixed in the commandments they follow, tend not to protest anything other than poor results by their football teams.

It is a time for disappointment. Maybe concern or even worry. Not yet panic.

Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem