Photo: Shlomo Ne’eman, chairman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, attends a press conference of the Yesha Council outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Jan. 6, 2022. Photo courtesy of Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

JNS

The Israel Border Police on Tuesday, Dec. 6, demolished a Jewish outpost erected near the community of Ma’ale Michmash in Samaria, detaining 10 and injuring three others, local activists said.

Land In Contention

Security forces destroyed temporary residential structures and an animal pen belonging to the residents during the operation at Givat Sde Yonatan, Israeli media reported.

The outpost, re-established a few months ago in the Binyamin region of Samaria, was allegedly built on private land owned by Palestinians and has repeatedly been evacuated, most recently in late September.

Activists claimed police officers employed “extreme violence” against residents on Tuesday. A Magen David Adom ambulance was allegedly prevented from reaching the site, while United Hatzalah paramedics treated one person who was lightly wounded and required stitches.

Plot Suspected!

“The demolition is the direct result of the ‘settler violence’ campaign that continues to be aggressively promoted by pro-Palestinian groups,” the Regavim Movement, which monitors illegal Palestinian construction in Judea and Samaria, stated.

Tamar Sikurel, a Regavim spokeswoman, said that are “no fewer than 317 illegal Arab structures” within a one-mile radius of the site of the demolitions today. “It is inconceivable that while Israelis at war,” she said, “our defense system diverts forces of this magnitude for enforcement actions against Jewish residents.”

The Yesha Council, which represents the interests of the some 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, also slammed “so-called human rights groups” for “concocting the plot of ‘settler violence’” on Tuesday.

Responding to new IDF data suggesting that violent incidents perpetrated by Jews in the disputed territory has again decreased in the past month, Shlomo Ne’eman, chairman of the Yesha Council, said he hoped pro-Palestinian groups would be prosecuted for an “evil campaign” against residents of Judea and Samaria.

“We already know that the real violence is directed at the ‘settlers,’ rather than emanating from them,” he said. “Their evil campaign does not only blacken the image of the pioneers in Judea and Samaria but is directed against an entire country.”

“These are the facts: The residents of Judea and Samaria are a protective buffer for the entire country,” he added. “Our communities teach love of the land, prosperity and development based on the values of respect for every person.”

Violence Drops

While Jewish criminals “will always be outside the camp,” Palestinian criminals “stand at the head,” he added, charging Palestinian leadership. He also referred to Palestinian “immense, bloodthirsty anti-Semitism that educates towards murder, deportation and rape.”

The number of violent incidents committed by Israeli Jews against Arab residents of Judea and Samaria continues to drop, according to a leaked Israel Defense Forces memo published on Dec. 5, two weeks after Israel Police data suggested a similar trend.

The confidential document was prepared by IDF Central Command, which is responsible for Judea and Samaria, and was first reported by Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

In the first week of October, the military recorded 32 incidents of nationalist crime, including four grave attacks and 19 lesser offenses. However, in the week following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, troops registered 24 violent incidents, three of which were “serious.”

Between Oct. 15 and 21, the number of recorded incidents dropped further, with 10 instances of Jewish violence reported. The number of incidents jumped to 38 between Oct. 22 and 28 but in subsequent weeks, the number continued to fall.