Hilltop Youth
Hilltop Youth | |
---|---|
נוער הגבעות | |
Leader | Meir Ettinger |
Dates of operation | 1990s-Present |
Ideology | |
Major actions | Duma arson attack |
Status | Active |
Hilltop Youth (
Origins
On 16 November 1998, in what was viewed as a declaration intended to thwart peace talks, and in particular the implementation of his political rival
"Everyone that's there should move, should run, should grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that's grabbed will be in our hands. Everything we don't grab will be in their hands."[6][7]
People proceeded to heed his exhortation and outposts proliferated, in a practice often called "creating facts on the ground",[8] but many would later feel betrayed by Sharon when the Israeli West Bank barrier he devised in 2005 cut off many of the illegal communities from the expanded Israel Sharon envisaged at that time.[5]
The example of figures like
Influences
According to terrorism expert Ami Pedahzur, ideologically, Hilltop Youth espouse a Kahanist worldview, favouring "deportation, revenge, and annihilation of Gentiles that posed a threat to the people of Israel".[4]
The youth are influenced by
About the groups
The Hilltop Youth are a "loosely organized, anarchy-minded group", of some several hundred youths around a hard core of scores of violent activists often noted for establishing illegal/disputed outposts outside existing settlements.[11][14] According to Danny Rubinstein they are formed into private militias.[15] Their numbers (2009) are estimated to be around 800, with approximately 5,000 others who share their ideological outlook.[3] They completely dissociate themselves from Israeli institutions, and identify themselves with the Land of Israel.[11] They settle on hilltops in areas densely crowded by Palestinians.[3]
Members linked to the group have been accused of engaging in Israeli settler violence, including vandalism of Palestinian schools[16] and mosques,[17] the rustling of sheep from Palestinian flocks and the extirpation of their centuries-old olive groves, or stealing their olive harvests.[3][18][19] This last practice was endorsed by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu on a visit to a hilltop outpost, Havat Gilad, where he issued a rabbinical ruling that, "The ground on which the trees are planted is the inheritance of the Jewish people, and the fruit of the plantings was seeded by the goyim in land that is not theirs."[20] They seize land not by any official method: they claim a hilltop by setting up an encampment, and then claim the land nearby, whether under Palestinian cultivation or not, or by uprooting Palestinian trees and shooting in the air if any Palestinian comes near to the new outpost.[21]
Settlers have long been accused of carrying out what are called "
Many of the Hilltop Youth feel that the mainstream settler movement has lost its way, opting for cheap housing close to major cities, built by local Arab labor, with tall fences and no space between their homes. The Youth often engage in organic farming[23] and shun Palestinian labor in favor of Hebrew labor. 2.5% of eggs consumed in Israel are calculated to be produced on the outposts run by the Hilltop Youth leader Avri Ran.[24][25]
The Hilltop Youth has been condemned in the past by figures within Israel's government, with Former Defense Minister Ehud Barak referring to the group as unacceptable "homemade terror, Jewish-made terror".[22]
Notable exponents
See also
- Israeli outpost
- Price tag policy
References
- ^ 'Ex-Shin Bet chief: Government does not want to deal with Jewish terror,' Ynet 8 August 2015.
- ^ Erica Chernofsky (18 August 2009). "Hilltop Youth push to settle West Bank". BBC. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g Daniel Byman, A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism, Oxford University Press, 2011 pp.291f.
- ^ a b Ami Pedahzur, The Triumph of Israel's Radical Right, Oxford University Press, 2012 pp.135-137.
- ^ a b Isabel KershnerBarrier: The Seam of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Macmillan, 2014 pp.184-185.
- ^ Adam T. Smith, The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities, University of California Press, 2003 p.6
- ^ a b Anton La Guardia, 'NS Profile - The Israeli Settlements,' New Statesman 26 May 2003
- ^ Deborah Campbell This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land, D & M Publishers, 2009 p.89.
- Frontline, Produced and Directed by Dan Setton PBS2005.
- ^ Byman, Daniel; Sachs, Nathan (18 August 2012). "The Rise of Settler Terrorism". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f Gershuni, Hillel 'A Jewish ISIS Rises in the West Bank,' Tablet 11 January 2016
- ^ Chaim Levinson, Israeli 'hilltop youth' accuse their former hero of stealing settlers' land, at Haaretz, 31 January 2013.
- ^ Ben Caspit, 'Who are Israel's Hilltop Youth?,' Al-Monitor 15 December 2015.
- ^ Laura King (13 July 2004). "Audit says Israel funded settlements". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Danny Rubinstein, 'Le tribù d'Israele non si parlano,' in Lucio Caracciolo (ed.), La Questione Israeliana, Limes 11 June 2021 ppè.47-52 p.50
- ^ Tovah Lazroff (21 October 2010). "Palestinians blame 'hilltop youth' for school arson". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Chaim Levinson (14 December 2011). "Israel Police scrambles to stop mosque arsonists from striking again". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Lila Perl, Theocracy, Marshall Cavendish 2007 p.128.
- ^ Daniel Gavron,The Other Side of Despair, Rowman & Littlefield 2004 p.194.
- ^ Uri Ben-Eliezer, Old Conflict, New War: Israel’s Politics Toward the Palestinians, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 p.189.
- New York Times, 14 February 2003.
- ^ a b Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (9 January 2012). "Israel Cracks Down on Radical 'Hilltop Youth'". NPR. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ 'Israel’s Religious Right and the Question of Settlements,' Archived 2011-09-04 at the Wayback Machine International Crisis Group Middle East Report N°89 – 20 July 2009 pp.8-9.'Many hilltop youth farm organically, and maintain autonomous self-defence groups.(p.9).
- ^ Dafna Arad (24 April 2012). "Farming in the West Bank: Organic paradise, thorny reality". Haaretz. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ^ Tamara Traubmann, It’s organic, but where was it grown Haaretz 2 August 2007
- ^ 3 Months imprisonment for accused in "spy affair", Arutz7, June 2013
- ^ Plea Bargain and Light Sentences for Right Wing Activists who Tracked IDF Forces, Ha'aretz, December 2012
- ^ Elisha Ben Kimon, 'Amiram Ben-Uliel: The handyman accused of Duma murders,' Ynet 3 January 2016.
- ^ Oded Shalom and Elior Levy, 'West Bank inches closer to boiling point,' Ynet 8 August 2014.
- ^ Jewish extremist freed after 10 months behind bars, Times Of Israel, June 2016
External link
- About Nati Ozeri
- Interview with Avri Ran Archived 10 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine