He is an Arab, therefore he is scary!

Saed Bannoura

September 15, 2009 - IMEMC

Unfortunately, the title of this piece is not fiction and is based on real life stories and incidents in which armed Israeli settlers shot, wounded and killed several Palestinians in the occupied territories including in occupied East Jerusalem.

The reason I am writing this piece is an incident that took place Friday, September 11 2009. This incident involves an Israeli settler who shot and wounded two Palestinians in an East Jerusalem neighborhood just because he felt 'scared’, not because they were armed, and they weren’t, but only because he felt threatened by their presence.

The settler was apprehended by the Israeli police, and said that he just felt scared to see the Arabs in a parking lot in east Jerusalem.

The 'scary Arabs’ were a man and a 13-year-old child. They were in a parking lot in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday evening when the settlers opened fire at them.

The settler initially claimed that he was attacked by six persons, and that he opened fire at them using his personal rifle.

Later on, he clearly told the Israeli Police that he just felt scared and threatened by the simple fact that the two are Arabs and that they were near him. He just felt scared and threatened by the Arab man and child who happened to be at the parking lot.

The incident led later on to clashes between Palestinians residents and Israeli policemen.

The shooting itself and the statements of the settlers are not new, it is the same old story, "We don’t want Arabs", "Arabs out", "Arabs are terrorists"… and other racist slogans fundamentalists in Israel often shout during their protests.

This is how Arabs, not only the Palestinians in the occupied territories, but all Arabs in Israel and in Jerusalem are perceived.

This is why a settler like Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently the Foreign Minister, and the former member of the terrorist Kach movement, considers the Arabs and the Palestinians as a threat to the very existence of Israel.

Lieberman was previously appointed as the Minister of Strategic Affairs, a new post that was created to host him in the former Israeli government. A ministerial post that was created after Lieberman’s repeated statements and slurs against the Arabs, and the Palestinians, describing them as the 'Strategic threat’.

The danger, the new and yet very old danger, is that settlers are an armed population, well trained and fast in using automatic rifles, and are responsible for hundreds of casualties among the Palestinians.

This population was 'raised’ on the principle that 'this land in Jewish, for the Jewish people, and we must defend it by all means’.

Throughout the years since the creation of Israel in Palestine, the settlers were always encouraged by their consecutive governments, their weapons are all legal, all licensed and regulated by Israel, and they never hesitated in using them against unarmed Palestinians, women, elderly and children.

Settlers always received incentives from consecutive governments and their illegal acts were 'blessed’ by their governments as dozens of illegal outposts were eventually licensed by Israel and received services including paved roads leading to their outposts and hooking the outposts with water and power supplies.

Now, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has a government of settlers, fundamentalists and extremists, and even members of his own Likud party are moving against him just because he is holding some talks regarding 'evacuating’ some illegal outposts, outposts that are considered illegal by Israel itself.

Maybe Netanyahu should start realizing that the real scare here is not the Arabs, but the settlers and fundamentalists Netanyahu himself and previous Israeli Prime Ministers, armed and encouraged.

Several settler groups recently said that they will not hesitate in using force against Israel soldiers should they evacuate more illegal outposts. Several Israeli soldiers and policemen were wounded in previous evacuations of some illegal outpost and a few small settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Yet, Arabs and Palestinians remain the scary ones, although they are the ones facing daily attacks, if not by the soldiers, then by the settlers.

Dozens if not hundreds of women, children and men, were killed and wounded by the settlers throughout the years, not because they posed any threat, but because they are Arabs, and therefore they are scary!