Peres Recommending To Expunge Lawless Settlers’ Records
This newspaper has written a lot in recent months about the upturn in lawless conduct by settlers. In this context, you may think that the state would take a zero tolerance policy towards such actions. But it seems that a very different approach is being taken.
The upturn in settler lawlessness, or more correctly lawlessness among the right fringe of the settler movement, is a direct response to the disengagement from Gaza in 2005. The organizing principle is “never again” – settlers were evacuated from Gaza and they wish to show that they will make things much more difficult for the state in the case of further large-scale evacuations. This is why every minor evacuation now, even just from a single hilltop, tends to spark violence.
It is strange, in this context, that President Shimon Peres has just recommended that the courts expunge the records of 59 people who were detained during acts of protest against the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. “The recommendation,” said a statement from the President’s office, “derives from the unique nature of the disengagement and related events, which were aberrant events in history.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
