Settler invasion of Palestinian Arab spaces and Palestinian Arab invasion of settler spaces

Looking for equivalency or bothsidesism. I'll give you equivalency/bothsidesism.

While looking for something else, I landed on an X post from way back on 6 Oct 2023. I remember reading about it — the sukkah that Israeli settlers set up in Huwara, a Palestinian Authority (PA) town that is often in the news. I had never seen photos or videos of the sukkah but I know that it was blamed, in part, for what followed the next day, the topic of that blame being beyond the scope of this article.

Many Jews and non-Jews in Israel and abroad condemned the act and B’Tselem (as we will read below) noted that it was part of a pogrom on the town.

Videos of the two invasions

1. The Oct 6th invasion of Palestinian Arab space by settlers:

2. Just one of many examples of the Oct 7th invasion of settler space by Palestinian Arabs in Gaza:

That is one of the milder videos of what happened on Oct 7th. If you want to see more videos from that day, you can find them on the Hamas Massacre website.

Settler space, I say?

You may object to my referring to Oct 7th as the invasion of settler spaces but to Hamas and other jihadi (and less-than-jihadi) groups, ALL OF ISRAEL is occupied by us Jews so all of us are illegal settlers.

The Original Post

I found the video on a retweet by the anti-Zionist Israeli NGO, B’Tselem. Yaniv Kubovich had posted the video. Let us begin with Kuboch’s original post. I translate the text below.

Yaniv Kubovich:

Last night, Palestinian residents of Huwara were required to close their businesses and enter their homes to allow settlers to celebrate under their windows. A political event in which right-wing MKs are taking part. Another company of soldiers was deployed to guard this disgrace. The main thing is that the Chief of Staff promised, "I am responsible for ensuring that every mission entrusted to the soldiers will reflect the values ​​of the IDF."

When retreeting, B’Tselem added that “19-year-old Palestinian, Labib Dumiani, was killed last night in a pogrom carried out by the army and settlers.”

Many will believe that statement even in face of a Reuters account of the events as written by Palestinian journalist, Raneen Sawafta. She first wrote that:

Residents said a group of settlers had erected a tent in Huwara, held prayers and later marched through the town. Some of them were carrying arms and began vandalising shops and cars, they said.

and, she wrote, one of the settlers shot and killed Dumiani.

However, it seems reasonable to expect that if there was a video available for the Torah-studying group in the town, there would also be videos of marching armed settlers who vandalised shops and cars.

On the other hand, Sawafta continues:

The Israeli military, offering a different account, said its forces fired at a Palestinian who had hurled a brick at an Israeli vehicle during clashes between dozens of settlers and townspeople. It said the suspect was struck by gunfire but did not elaborate on his identity.

A military spokesperson said the military was unaware of any settler having fired a weapon during the confrontations.

Dumiani’s family claimed that he hurled the rock at settlers who were throwing rocks at the family home.

Given that B’Tselem is famous for catching settler violence on camera, the lack of any documentation here is instructive, meaning, that there wasn’t any. In this case.

I do not deny that there are vigilante settlers and I am opposed to that.

Furthermore, if B’Tselem can use the word ‘pogrom’ for the setting up of a Torah-study group in a sukkah in an Arab town, then the word ‘pogrom’ has lost its meaning when used by them.

Tit for Tat

I hope that even the most vigourously antagonistic anti-Zionist commenters on my articles would agree that setting up a table in a sukkah does not constitute a pogrom. However, I do imagine that many of my readers would suggest that so humiliating Arabs in their own town is a form of violence.

May I suggest, then, that the Palestinian Arabs respond in kind — come set up a table in a Jewish town, in Sderot or Ra’anana or even Kibbutz Nir Oz and open your Quran’s and conduct a study session.

You would likely be shocked to discover Israeli reactions — they would probably bring you refreshments and pull up a chair to take part in the discussions. If you came unarmed, that is. A rain of missiles would kind-of spoil the mood.

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