In conjunction with the recent political chaos in Jerusalem between the Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinians, Israeli settlers have been joining the campaign of incitement against Palestinians. They are creating secret online groups to spread hatred against the Palestinians of Jerusalem and the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948.
Settlers are putting very strong restrictions on one to be accepted as a member of these groups. As one should prove himself an Ultranationalist Israeli who shows loyalty to the Israeli Jewish State and believes in the legitimacy of killing Arabs mercilessly.
The conversations in these groups include hate-speech against Arabs, and agitation to attack them. In addition, they discuss the methods they’ll follow for attacking Arabs, and the tools and weapons they will be using. Moreover, they send pictures of weapons and locate the places of gathering to commit their crimes.
Some of these groups have been removed from social media as they go against the law. Since most of them hold names of incitement like “War Group” and “Death to Arabs”. However, a lot of these groups are still hidden from censorship and their members insist to contribute to their permanence.
An attack on an Arab man in Bat Yam that was reported recently was basically planned coordinated on one of these groups. The man had serious injury after more than 40 settlers dragged him from his car and attacked him.
In another incident, another Arab man, named Moussa Hassouna, from Al-lod in the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948 was shot dead by an Israeli settler during a protest that led to clashes between the Israeli forces and Palestinians. Obviously, the Israeli police’s negligence in taking serious actions to stop these crimes encouraged settlers to go too far with it. As they attacked the funeral of Hassouna and started shooting bullets randomly and threatening to kill more Arabs.
Elsewhere in Haifa, settlers marked the houses of Arab people in order to recognize them during their attacks at night. And in Jaffa, an Arab house was burnt by Israeli settlers causing serious injuries for an innocent child, and a big loss of property. While in Jerusalem, settlers freely move in the Arab neighborhoods holding their guns, which are permitted for them by the Israeli government, shooting on every Arab they see.
Several media platforms have stated that the Israeli police are trying to suppress the criminal actions of settlers against Arabs. However, most of the videos of these attacks shared on social media prove the existence of the Israeli police in the crime scene, avoiding reacting and preserve the Palestinians’ safety. According to these videos, the Israeli police practices discrimination against Arabs and provides protection to settlers who perpetrate such crimes.
It should be mentioned that the Palestinians who live in the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948 have Israeli citizenship, which means they live under Israeli rule and should enjoy the same rights that Jewish Israelis have. Yet, Israel refuses to treat them the same way it treats the Jews and discrimination can be observed all the time between the two groups.