לא זה הדרך: When Settler Violence Turns Inward

There are moments when a society must look in the mirror and decide who it really is.

This is one of those moments.

Over the past few days, a dangerous truth has been laid bare: the same extremist settler violence once aimed at Palestinians is now turning inward—toward IDF soldiers, toward police, toward the very fabric of Israeli civil order.

A Disturbing Escalation

It started on June 27, when police released all settlers detained after a deadly rampage through a Palestinian village. No charges. No accountability.

By June 28-29, it got worse. Settlers didn’t just clash with Palestinians. They turned their rage on IDF reservists—choking them, throwing rocks, slashing tires, even attempting to run soldiers over.

Then, on June 30, the tipping point: settlers torched a sophisticated surveillance system near Ramallah—an IDF installation built to prevent terror attacks. The military called it “a danger to the security of the residents.”

This isn’t just lawlessness.
It’s a warning flare.
And if we don’t confront it, the flames will spread.

This Is Not Zionism

Let’s stop pretending.
This isn’t Zionism.
This is destruction wrapped in the language of redemption.

Zionism was never meant to sanctify vengeance or empower the few to terrorize the many. It was meant to rebuild a people, to renew a land, and to restore a sense of shared destiny.

This violence isn’t a glitch. It’s what happens when extremism is enabled. When fanaticism is fed. When hate is normalized and excused—until it turns, inevitably, on its own.

לא זה הדרך — This Is Not the Way

A few months ago, I created a poster series titled “לא זה הדרך” (“This is not the way”) as a protest against rising extremism in Israeli society. The phrase itself comes from an 1899 essay by Ahad Ha’am, written as a direct response to Herzl’s political Zionism. He feared that without first building a deep ethical and cultural foundation, the Zionist project would lose its soul. His concern wasn’t just political—it was civilizational. A state built without substance, he argued, would not only fail to reflect Jewish values but risk corrupting them entirely. Over a century later, his warning still resonates.

A Movement for the Middle

The לא זה הדרך series isn’t just protest art.
It’s a call for revival.

We use it to hold up a mirror to Israeli society—not to shame it, but to wake it up. To remind ourselves that the Jewish center is not weak. It is weary. It is watching. And it is ready to rise.

We are the quiet majority who still believe in justice without hate. In love of country without fanaticism. In strength that protects—not terrorizes.

This is not about Left or Right.
It’s about Right and Wrong.

Zionism deserves better.
Israel deserves better.
We all deserve better.

לא זה הדרך.
And it’s time to say so—out loud, and together.