Thread by @BtSIsrael

When a Palestinian attacks a soldier, consequences are usually quick and overwhelming. They could be shot, or arrested. The IDF could demolish their home, blockade their village, arrest their family members.

So what happens when a settler does the same? 🧵

Over the weekend, dozens of settlers attacked the IDF's Central Command chief and other soldiers in Hebron, while others threw rocks at an IDF force near Nablus, punching one soldier in the face. Only a few assailants were arrested - but the vast majority of them walked free.

A week prior, a soldier was hospitalized after settlers threw a glass bottle at his face, while protesting demolitions in an outpost. In response, far-right MK Tzvi Sukkot said settler violence doesn’t count as terror, while defending a new law to deport terrorists’ families.

In June, we saw another rare case of the IDF trying to apply the law to settlers, with the eviction of a settler outpost. 5 buildings, all erected in the past year, were demolished.

The result? 2 days of settlers hurling molotov cocktails and rocks at soldiers and firefighters.

In response to these settlers hurling flaming projectiles at soldiers, the Civil Administration banned all IDF forces from driving on the road where the molotovs were thrown.

Their settlements weren't blockaded. No soldiers broke into their homes late at night. The IDF retreated

A day later, the army’s blatant double standards for policing settlers were again on full display, after soldiers reportedly fired a warning shot in the air “by accident,” explaining that they thought that the masked youths who had been throwing stones at them were Palestinian.

So basically, had the soldiers known that the stone-throwers were Israeli settlers, they wouldn't have escalated the situation with live ammo.

Here we see the stark difference between the occupied and occupiers. Collective punishment for some, collective impunity for others.

The IDF and the settlers are both occupiers. Soldiers are there to protect them. Their orders sometimes come directly from a civilian settler “security coordinator.”

They have a legal obligation to stop settler violence, but their orders in the field don’t reflect that.

“I couldn’t do anything to [violent settler youths], my hands were tied. Why? Because their parents thought it was okay, and the company commander is friends with their parents”
First Sergeant | Hebron
breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/da…

"as a soldier in the army, you’re automatically going to side with the Jew in this story. For you, he’s more of a citizen, or more worthy of rights. [...] The narrative [...] [was] that we were watching over the settlers."
Captain | Nablus | 2014
breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/da…

The settlers see the IDF as a tool to further their messianic agenda. And in turn, whether due to political pressure coming from the halls of government, or due to the abusive, symbiotic relationship built on the ground, the IDF's high command complies in full.