Israeli West Bank settler tells BBC attacks on Palestinians are justified as revenge
The Israeli settler outpost of Havat Gilad, deep inside the occupied West Bank, is spread across several hilltops, its sheds and simple block houses clearly
The Israeli settler outpost of Havat Gilad, deep inside the occupied West Bank, is spread across several hilltops, its sheds and simple block houses clearly visible from neighbouring Palestinian villages. Last weekend saw a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the area, after an Israeli security guard from Havat Gilad was killed during a confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis in the village of Tal last Friday.
Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were also killed in the incident, the original cause of which is disputed. After spending the weekend speaking to Palestinians around Havat Gilad, we drove into the outpost itself, to ask one of its residents about the violence, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It is rare for an international media organisation like the BBC to be allowed into these outposts.
But on this occasion, Yehuda Shimon, a lawyer with an organisation that represents Israelis arrested for violence against Palestinians, agreed to speak. He told me that attacks on Palestinian villages last weekend were justified as revenge for the killing of the outpost's security guard. "I think now, after they killed one Israeli, we need to kill all the people in Tal and Sarra, even Jit and Farata," he said, naming the Palestinian villages closest to the outpost.
I put it to him that he was equating one Jewish life with hundreds or even thousands of Palestinian lives. "No," he said, "millions. One Jewish life, it's 10 million [Palestinians]."
The BriefWire