by Stephen Lendman

Violence and/or vandalism committed by extremist Israeli settlers against West Bank Palestinians occur almost daily. They’re not isolated incidents.

Nor are multiple daily Israeli security force attacks - breaking into homes pre-dawn, terrorizing families, making lawless arrests, other times attacking peaceful protesters threatening no one.

These are systematic acts of racist hate - along with Israel asserting its ruthless might, maintaining militarized occupation harshness long ago declared illegal.

International law requires occupying powers to ensure the security, safety and welfare of populations they control. Israeli soldiers, police and other security forces ignore their responsibility. When violent incidents occur, rare investigations follow. When conducted, they’re nearly always whitewashed.

On rare occasions when Israelis are charged and convicted of criminality against Palestinians, sentences are minor - mere hand-slaps.

Justice is systematically denied. Violence against defenseless people continues out-of-control - pandemic across Palestine.

Israeli leaders earlier promised crackdowns on settler violence. Netanyahu vowed to treat radicalized Israelis the same way as alleged Palestinian militants.

Pledges proved hollow. Netanyahu calling the immolation of 18-month old Ali Dawabsha “abhorrent” is meaningless rhetoric. So is saying Israeli policy is “zero tolerance.”

Claiming he’s “determined to vigorously fight manifestations of hate, fanaticism and terrorism from whatever side” is pure rubbish. Nothing matches the ruthlessness of longstanding Israeli state terror - especially under its current fascist leadership.

Netanyahu’ spokesman Mark Regev lied saying “(o)ne of the criticisms of Israel is that there are two systems of law in the West Bank, one for Palestinians and a second for Israelis. Now rioters from both will be tried under the same system.”

False!! Longstanding Israeli apartheid jurisprudence remains unchanged. Jews charged with crimes face civil justice. Palestinians are tried in kangaroo military courts. Guilt is automatic. Innocence is no defense.

Regev’s comments changed nothing. Ruthless Israeli business as usual continues. Netanyahu refused to call violent settlers terrorists - the way he and other Israeli officials routinely designate nonviolent Palestinians engaged in legitimate resistance for their rights.

They ludicrously claim settlements on stolen Palestinian land aren’t the problem. Netanyahu arrogantly blames a handful of violent outliers alone. They don’t represent settlers “loyal to the state and its laws,” he says.

Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea took issue with his comments saying:

“This criminal behavior must be rooted out, and everyone knows where the roots are: in the incitement of the settler rabbis, in the Israeli governments that over and over again approved the settlers’ illegal acts, in the leniency of the judges and in the powerlessness of the Shin Bet, the army and the police.”

Israeli law enforcement agencies have plenty of power. They don’t use it against violent settlers. They target innocent Palestinians repressively - for political and racist reasons, not for criminality.

Ultranationalist infrastructure minister Uzi Landau supports extremist settlers. He calls Palestinians critical of their radicalism “anti-Semites…seek(ing) to undermine our right to exist here.” He claims violent elements are few in number - ignoring near daily incidents.

Will settlers responsible for murdering 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and his father, Saad, days later from third-degree burns too severe to save him be held accountable?

Don’t bet on it. And will it matter if any settler is held accountable? Will it stop many others from near daily rampaging throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem?

So far, Israeli authorities claim they’ve uncovered no evidence to charge anyone with the Dawabsha family murders. Perhaps they haven’t sought any.

They perfunctorily detained an unannounced number of alleged suspects (Haaretz reported nine) - then released them the next day without explanation.

Israeli security force crimes against defenseless Palestinians continue multiple times daily. Settler violence and vandalism routinely goes unpunished.

Despite public anger over the Dawabsha family killings, extremist settlers set Palestinian agricultural land ablaze near Nablus on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said they fled to nearby settlements. Soldiers attacked Palestinians rushing to extinguish the fire - attacking them with tear gas and stun grenades, igniting additional fires.

Separately, Israeli soldiers lethally shot 20-year-old Anas Taha - claiming “he stabbed a settler.” Instead of arresting him and assuring due process, they murdered him in cold blood.

Longstanding Israeli policy reflects vindictive injustice. Historian Tacitus described Rome’s conquest of Britain as “creat(ing) a desolation and call(ing) it peace.”

Palestine under militarized Israeli rule reflects harsh Roman occupation - with shameless Palestinian collaborators serving as willing enforcers for special benefits they derive.

Peace is a convenient illusion. So is justice for long beleaguered people. Israeli ruthlessness remains unchanged.

Dawabsha family deaths at the hands of racist settlers reflect longstanding Israeli ethnic cleansing and slow-motion genocide to make historic Palestinian as free as possible from its original inhabitants - so racist Jews can have it all for themselves.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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