(Huwara) Religious Zionism is A Community of Violence (Sukkot)

Religious Zionism is a community of violence. As a political community, its sole representation (in the Knesset and coalition) is represented by parties (Religious Zionism/Jewish Power/Noam) that represent these people. They are radical and violent religious Jewish settlers in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian West Bank, sustained by the State and by the a full-on rightwing government engineered by Benjamin Netanyahu, a government of extremists that depends for its life upon the support of the religious Zionist sector.

Over the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday, Palestinian terrorists tried to murder a Jewish family passing through the flashpoint town of Huwara in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Exacting revenge, settlers stormed the town. Far religious right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot came to set up a Sukkah and hold a Torah lesson in the middle of the road.

As reported here in Haaretz, The IDF said settlers caused property damage, while the Palestinian Red Crescent said that 51 Palestinians were wounded out of which 42 received treatment after inhaling tear gas. One Israeli was also lightly wounded. A Huwara resident told Haaretz that dozens of settlers gathered in the evening hours after MK Sukkot set up a tent in the village, and that they looted shops and damaged property.

That night, 4 settlers were wounded, two Palestinians killed. A Palestinian teen was shot and killed the next day, either by the IDF (as reported by the IDF) or by settlers (as reported by Palestinian sources).

In this vicious circle, Judaism in Israel today is a source of rightwing political voice, rightwing politics a source of Jewish religious violence.

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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1 Response to (Huwara) Religious Zionism is A Community of Violence (Sukkot)

  1. dmf says:

    these are days of horror.

    from less dire moments:
    https://www.wnyc.org/story/fifty-years-excuse-me-are-you-jewish

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