This month marks five years since I began my activity in the occupied territories of the West Bank. It's a milestone that is certainly not a "cause for celebration," but on this occasion I am sharing with you, my friends, a few comments and insights of mine relating to this intense and challenging period that has greatly influenced my life and my perceptions.

These words are dedicated to Ayman Gharib (أيمن غريب), a brave Palestinian human rights activist who documents the injustices of the occupation and human rights violations. Ayman is imprisoned in administrative detention imposed on him for six months. Administrative detention is one of the most arbitrary and cruel mechanisms of the occupation, operated through the military system, without due judicial process. This mechanism, its components, and its modus operandi are unknown to most Israelis. According to reports from human rights organizations in Israel, over 3,000 Palestinians, including minors, are currently imprisoned in detention facilities under terrible conditions. Based on past experience, over 90% of them will be released after various periods of detention without ever being indicted.

For quite a few years, I participated in various protests and activities against the occupation and its injustices. I expressed myself on various platforms and contributed money to organizations dealing with these issues. But only after I retired from an intense and demanding professional career I could afford to join consistent and ongoing activity "in the field." From February 2021 until today, I have participated in hundreds of different activities in the "West Bank," ranging from shepherding accompaniment to protective presence, including olive harvests, assisting farmers, and providing humanitarian aid. I have also participated in protests alongside Palestinians and in solidarity actions like the solidarity stand at the Za'atara (Tapuach) junction.

I owe thanks to many, but I will mention here two "mentors" who accompanied me from the very beginning, Guy Hirschfeld and Rabbi Arik Ascherman. These are very different people in many parameters, but they are similar in their spiritual courage and immense dedication. I learned a great deal from both, and I am grateful to them.

The reality that existed five years ago in the places where I operated, with friends and colleagues, mainly in the southern Jordan Valley, was very problematic, but today it is twice or even three times as difficult. In the first two years, in most cases, we succeeded in assisting the Bedouin-Palestinian shepherds, to go out with their herds, both in the southern valley and in other areas, despite severe and disgraceful harassment by the Jewish terrorists inhabiting settlements and illegal outposts. In many cases, this harassment was supported by the army and police. I well remember, from that time, images of many herds we accompanied in the areas east and south of the Mevo'ot Yericho settlement, in the wide area between Mu’arajat and Ras Ein al-Auja. These are images that cannot be seen these days because these communities have been expelled from their land and homes.

In the last three years, since the establishment in December 2022 of the crazy and malicious full-right government of the indicted PM Netanyahu and his partners, and even more since October 7, 2023, violent messianic Jewish terrorists have "succeeded," through a horrific and malicious "snowballing" process, with the disgraceful and unforgivable cooperation of the occupation forces and authorities (the IDF, police, Civil Administration, and regional councils), in creating a terrible reality where dozens of Bedouin-Palestinian communities have been expelled from the southern valley and other areas, following severe abuse, ranging from threats to theft and destruction.

Since the outbreak of the war, the main focus of my activity and that of my friends and colleagues has been "protective presence," primarily attempting to help communities survive the attacks on them and to document them. To our horror and sorrow, we mostly failed, and the black forces mentioned above, which enjoy the backing and support of the Netanyahu government, have succeeded in dramatically advancing the ethnic cleansing of Area C. The State of Israel, with emphasis on the IDF which is sovereign in the area, is blatantly and outrageously failing in its responsibility under international law, not to mention Jewish ethics, to ensure the safety of all residents living throughout the West Bank.

The most horrifying thing for me, which I discovered shortly after joining the activity, is the malicious and abhorrent symbiosis between the IDF, the police, and other occupation authorities, and the violent messianic Jewish terrorists and those who send them. I find it hard to find the right words to describe the crisis I experienced as someone who served in the IDF in combat service, both regular and reserves until the age of 47, when I was exposed to this symbiosis, which grew over time to unimaginable dimensions. The "Israel Defense Forces," "our" army, through its disgraceful conduct in the West Bank, has become a tool in the hands of messianic fanatics, some of them members of the government and Knesset, through realizing their crazy vision of dispossessing Palestinians from their lands and establishing an entity that has no connection whatsoever to the values on which the State of Israel was founded, whose principles are contained in its Declaration of Independence.

These five years brought me face to face with something I had hardly ever encountered up close in all my previous years. I encountered pure, distilled evil. I encountered it, up close, in the faces and terrible deeds of the Jewish terrorists driven by rabbis of darkness and extreme messianic politicians. I often encountered evil in the faces of the soldiers and police officers, even when they arrive in the area masked. This "experience" is terrible and horrifying mainly because it illustrates that many among us are truly no "better" than the persecutors of the Jewish people throughout the generations.

By this I don't mean only the rioting terrorists, but also all those who enable them to commit the atrocities, all those who know and remain silent, and also all the indifferent ones who do not wish to know. The feeling that has grown stronger in me, which I have been expressing over the past year, is that this State of Israel, whose authorities enable and encourage Jewish terrorism and ethnic cleansing, even funding and equipping the terrorists, and a state whose majority public is indifferent and denies the atrocities, has lost its moral right to exist.

There is no doubt that we have not yet reached, and perhaps never will reach, the level of murderousness of the persecutors of the Jews mentioned above, but I wish to argue, from the perspective of these five years, and especially the last three, that Israel is carrying out a cruel "slow death" of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, primarily in Area C. In addition to the direct and violent terror, this includes severe and malicious restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout the West Bank, which causes critical damage to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families. This includes preventing or placing obstacles in the way of access to agricultural lands and water sources, demolishing homes, creating difficulties to reach medical treatments, and many, many other despicable actions whose outcome is unbearable suffering and distress.

The points of light in this darkness are the precious activists, the determined ones, who work day and night throughout the West Bank in activities that try to minimize the atrocities, stand up to the terrorists and their supporters, document the horrors and injustices, and demonstrate in various ways humanity and solidarity with the Palestinian population that is threatened and attacked. It is a great privilege to be part of this small and wonderful community, which somehow preserves conscience and humanity in our reality. I will mention here the organizations I am involved with: first and foremost "Looking the Occupation in the Eye" (מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים), as well as "Rabbinical Human Rights Watch" (קול רבני לזכויות אדם) and "Torat Tzedek" (תורת צדק). I could not do this without my family's support for my activity, and that is not something to be taken for granted.

In conclusion, I want to note that many more activists are needed to provide a response to the communities in a reality where harassment and attacks are increasing.

   • The author is an activist and a secular-humanistic rabbi.