This handful is a fist

The story of radical youths causing damage to property and person is an indictment of our society.

Writing this piece is complicated when you’re constantly wondering if the time is right.

Of course, it’s never the right time, and I’ve seen too many issues in the State of Israel allowed to percolate and reach intolerable levels, simply because someone thought that there was good reason to ignore them due to other priorities. So something needs to be said. 

Outposts in Judea and Samaria have attracted international attention for being places from which groups of radical youth launch attacks on local Palestinians. The community seems complicit, and in recent weeks, even relatively moderate Rabbanim visited a farm in Gush Etzion from which violence is known to emerge (according to Gush residents living in Efrat and Tekoa with whom I’ve spoken), an act which to some shows tacit support.

I asked the folks with whom I was speaking about how one of the Rabbanim in a nearby (moderate) community showed a ton of support for the farm, and never condemned the violence coming from it. They each told me different reasons, but a couple stood out to me: firstly, the community actually perceives the general farm enterprise as important (a claim I’ll address soon) and secondly, the Rav of the community is a Kahanist, and should not be expected to express opposition to these actions.

I don’t think we can allow ourselves to learn to live with a radical influence on our community. There needs to be some pushback, and not just in words.

I’ll begin by stating that it goes without saying that the first and foremost fundamental issue with violence committed by radicalized youth is the very fact that it exists. But even the things we wish would go without saying, sometimes must be said.

Proper education of youth requires consistency; you can’t have a double standard for some students, and you can’t express your complicity when rules are broken. In a state with centralized education systems, and especially one with designated education infrastructure for religious students, the state bears the weight of ensuring that students uphold social conventions, observe state laws, and don’t end up in places where they can be allowed to devolve into pariahdom.

Over and over again I hear about how the youths perpetrating acts of violence and vandalism in Judea and Samaria are a non-representative, rogue handful, and their behavior is an aberration, not the norm. The majority of Israeli residents in those areas, people correctly point out, are not taking part in these acts of destruction of property and damage to person.  

Halakha teaches that while some mixtures are acceptable with a small amount of prohibited additive, if the forbidden addition contributes positively to the structure or flavor of the dish, the mixture becomes prohibited no matter how small the addition was (Ma’amid or Noten Ta’am). And the same goes if the addition, no matter how small, was added intentionally or was known of ab initio. That addition, in our example, is what draws the attention, and we must address it. 

The abhorrent immorality of the behavior these youths exhibit, and the detestable lack of sensitivity they show for the values of human dignity, property, and safety, exposes a lack in our national values. This “handful” is a fist, and this minority component is contributing substance and taste to our communal dish. 

We permit this lawlessness by not acting in our fullest capacity to prevent it, and show the youth that the rule of law occupies a low priority in our society, that just society and social order are optional. 

How do we expect other young people to learn to be contributing members of society? How do we expect them to not see the kid gloves with which we treat others of their age and societal standing? Young people always break the matrix, no matter how strong it seems to us, and quickly discover weak points in our philosophies and education.

There are many reasons people don’t want to speak out about this in public fora, and I can understand a few of them. 

If a person believes, as many Religious Zionists do, that the settlements in Judea and Samaria are a security asset, then speaking out against certain settlement efforts seems to be counterproductive. The same way that people treat lightly around Hareidi draft protests out of concern for what speaking out might indicate about their feelings towards Torah learning, they do not want to speak out against these youths because it might be seen as undermining the value of Yishuv HaAretz, of inhabiting the Land God promised.

So many times I have seen rabbis and public figures speak of how youths on these hilltops and in these farms are doing the work that the rest of us are not, and how their actions come from a deep place of our shared values, of Love of the Land. The well-known words of the Kuzari tell us that one can have desirable intentions and undesirable actions, and they ring loudly here. 

People will Whatabout this to death: where is your condemnation of X, where is the Palestinian condemnation of Y, what is and where is and who did and so on.

I’m not here to answer for any of the other items on the list, I am just an Israeli citizen watching a community not take steps against something which threatens our whole educational infrastructure. We will all suffer and our children will learn a backwards way of life if the rights of humans to property and security are not defended for all people in our care, including those under our military control (however you define that). Our students will learn that rules are optional. Our society will breed lawlessness, as it already does (one need only watch the footage of a Palestinian man being hit by an ATV while praying to know that this issue goes beyond school-aged youth). 

A meal offering (Minha) is fit for consumption once a handful is taken out of it. We can still purify this mixture by casting out this harmful handful, and if we do, we will all share a sanctified portion.

Ensuring the good name and integrity of a movement is dependent on casting out those who stand in opposition to values (and this is something many creeds and value collectives have done over the years). This is not exclusion; no community can cater to all the needs of all of its members. And there is more that must be done for (and not, “to”) these youths beyond destroying their outposts. The education and welfare systems, police and army must also be held to account on these matters, and must do better at ensuring that youth are not left outside. 

Of course removing this handful is not just a story of relocation, it will need to be a story of rehabilitation as well, and our community must be part of that difficult discussion of bettering education and strengthening just societal norms. 

But we must first recognize that the handful is a fist shaking in all of our faces, and it threatens us all down the road and immediately, as much as it imminently threatens others.