Top 10 awful items coming out of the Israeli government this week.

It is hard to keep track of the seemingly endless stream of racist, misogynistic inhumanity coming out of the Israeli govt. Here's a taste. And ONE source of HOPE at the end of this post.

Spotted hanging over a highway in Israel last week: a life-size doll wrapped in an Israeli flag with the sign “anarchist” — in a noose, with a black bag over the head and everything.

Here is a round-up of some of the most terrifying and outrageously racist things going on in the Israeli government from this past week. It’s not all. Just the top ten.

But read till the end, for one very inspiring thing that happened.

(1) Jewish terrorists attack an Arab village, on Shabbat

A group of religious Jews from the outpost of Or Tzion in the West Bank went on a murderous rampage last Shabbat in the Arab village of Burqa. They provoked violence, hurled rocks and bullets, and killed 19-year-old Qusay Jamal Matan.

Qusay Jamal Matan was killed in his village of Burqa on shabbat by a group of settlers on attack. (Sitting on a white horse decorated in blue. Photo courtesy)

Elisha Yered, 22, from the Ramat Migron outpost, and Yehiel Indore, 28, from the town of Ofra, were arrested for the murder. Yered, who is a former spokesman for Otzma Yehudit Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech, is suspected of interfering with a police investigation by taking Indore’s gun back to his home. Indore is still in the hospital having sustained a head injury during the rampage.

A smiling Elisha Yered, clad in a big knitted yarmulka, long sidecurls, and handcuffs, arrives at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court following his arrest, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90).

(2) Ben Gvir praised Jewish murder suspects while going after activists

Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir had only praise for Yered, Indore, and their posse, calling them “heroes”. Not a single member of the coalition or cabinet condemned this killing.

At the same time, police minister Ben Gvir — who, just to remind you, is a convicted violent criminal himself who openly espouses random murders of Palestinians, and was considered so violent that the IDF refused to recruit him — is going after anti-government protesters.

The next stage of the Police State has arrived. Protest organizers were detained and questioned by police for doing nothing illegal. They were standing, sitting, speaking — and arrested. Meanwhile, the kid who was severely beaten up and choked by officer Yair Hanuna was questioned by the police for the third time. Supporters gathered at the Salma police station and were forcibly removed by the police.

(3) Smotrich stealing Arab funds #1

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decided to withhold funding that has been allocated to Arab municipalities — that is, the 200 million NIS that they deserve, that was promised them, that was allocated for them, that they NEED in order to function as well as to do things like fight crime.

WHY? Because he can. He feels like it. He is currently deciding where he wants to put their money.

Our overtly racist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. Busha. An embarrassment.

We knew this day would come. With a guy like Smotrich for finance minister, a guy whose entire life has been about racism in the name of religion, we knew that the day would come when he would use the enormous power of MONEY to implement his world view. And we are here.

This is theft, actually. He is stealing money that was allocated to certain parties, taxpayer money that we all contributed to, and just deciding to do something else with it.

Who will he decide to give it to? The settler outposts that went on a murderous rampage on Shabbat (!)? Yeshivah students in Hebron?

This entire thing is so sick that even Shas and Likud people are speaking out against it. The Shas Interior Ministry is pressuring Smotrich not to do it. Haim Bibas, the Likud head of the Federation of Local Authorities (and mayor of Modi'in), has written a letter urging Netanyahu to put a stop to this. Others are calling it evidence that we have a government for Jews only.

(4) Smotrich stealing Arab funds #2

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (I STILL can't even believe that's a real thing...), was apparently so emboldened by yesterday's newly discovered superpower -- that is, that he can simply refuse to give the Arab municipalities the 200 million NIS that they are owed, OUR taxpayer money that was allocated to them for everyday functioning and also fighting crime -- he was so excited about this superpower that he decided to do it again. He is now refusing to send funds to East Jerusalem development because, get this, it includes money to help integrate Arabs into universities, especially Hebrew University.

2.5 BILLION NIS he has frozen. An everything that goes with it. east Jerusalem devt, infrastructure, education. and ore....

As it happens, I wrote a story for JTA just two months ago about the program for diversity and inclusion at Hebrew U. It's a phenomenal program, crucial for many disadvantaged groups, and a powerful stepping stone towards mutual understanding and building shared society.

(5) Limor Son Har Melech #1 — teaching her son to kill Arabs

This is one of the most chilling things I have ever seen. In this little clip, MK Limor Son Har Melech has a conversation with her small child. It goes like this:

Mother: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Child: A soldier

Mother: And what are you going to do?

Child: I'm going to ride around in a jeep and kill the Arabs.

Mother (smiling, hugging her child): Wonderful!

This is the MK who was at the violent Jewish attack on Huwara creating proud social media clips about it. The same one who also created a Knesset conference in favor of the exclusion of women, in which she excluded women's groups. And she is the same one whose former parliamentary aide spent Shabbat violently attacking the Arab village of Burqa.

(6) Palestinian youth killed for sitting in his car

Eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Friday. This includes 17-year-old Ramzi Fathi Hamed who was sitting in his car on a road outside the settlement of Ofra when the security guard shot him. This also includes three Palestinians the army claimed were militants who posed "an imminent threat".

So far this year, 212 Palestinians have been killed by either the IDF or settlers, including 36 children. At the same time, 28 Israelis and two tourists were killed by terrorism carried about by Palestinians. These statistics are according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides. Since this government came into power, violence and hatred are very clearly on the rise.

17-year-old Ramzi Fathi Hamed, smiling and wearing a tuxedo, was killed by the security guard of Ofra for sitting in his car.

(7) Limor Son Har Melech #2 — rape is only really bad if the perpetrator is Palestinian

More on Limor Son Har Melech, the racist, sexist MK who believes that murder is okay if the victim is Palestinian. Her latest law that the Knesset passed this week gives higher punishments to sexual predators who are Palestinian.

Punishing rape as a "nationalist" crime is so dangerous -- for women as well as Palestinians. Because sexual assault has NOTHING to do with nationality.

Here is my take-down of why this Jim Crow-type of law is so terrible.

(8) Idit Silman — segregation at hikes

Once again, our environment minister Idit Silman has once again revealed that her idea of protecting the environment is to promote gender segregation at nature sites. She announced this week that her pilot program is going into effect, although the Nature and Parks Authority was quick to say, no way, not under our watch. If you want to know what this would look like, here is a blog post i wrote nearly 10 years ago when my daughters and I were asked by a haredi guy to leave a spring so he could have a dip. There was no government support for him back then — but if Silman has her way, there will be.

(9) Govt expelling Bedouins from their homes

Thirteen Bedouin homes were demolished last week and many more have received demolition orders as the Beersheva court ruled that the Bedouin village of Ras Jaraba -- that has been in place since before the establishment of the State of Israel -- will be evacuated, its residents evicted, and its homes destroyed.

Why? To expand the city of Dimona. The community asked for assistance in integrating into Dimona life. Denied.

Residents claim that the authorities hand out demolition orders to the local residents, but do not provide planning solutions for them. After many years in which the Bedouin community had actually worked to reverse this, and recognized five villages and granted construction relief measures for young couples.

Those days are clearly gone. There’s a new sheriff in town.

(10) May Golan and her mother attack protesters — and then claim victimhood

May Golan, another awful MK whose entire platform is admittedly racist — not only admittedly but proudly racist — attacked protesters at the airport. Her mother physically attacked protesters while screaming, “My daughter will be prime minister one day!” As if all that wasn’t bad enough, she did a whole gaslighting thing by posting that she was the victim of the attack, not the perpetrator. Judge for yourself.

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And one big source of hope: A diverse march in solidarity with the Arab-Israeli community

On Sunday night, the Arab-Israeli community organized a silent protest to commemorate the lives of 143 Arab-Israelis killed in crime incidences so far this year and the complete failure by the government and the police to protect Palestinian communities, and to treat Palestinian lives as if they matter.

This issue of violence in the Arab community has a particularly gendered aspect, in the a disproportionate number of Arab women killed, and the complete and utter failure of the authorities to deal with it. Although Palestinians are only 20% of Israel’s population, 58% of all murdered women are Palestinian-Israeli, 73% of whom had previously filed complaints with the police. Police are less likely to act on Arab homicide cases and sentences are lower. Research conducted by WIZO and the Arab organisation Masarab Altopola for the Treatment of Women and Children shows indictment rates of 94.3% in cases where Jewish women were murdered and only 56% with Arab women. Conviction rates were 75% to 34 and sentences were three times as long when Jewish women were murdered.

I wrote about this last year for Plus61J, but the situation has only gotten worse.

Ghadir Hani, longtime Bedouin feminist activist who has done amazing things for her community as well as for Israeli women everywhere, urged Israelis to join her. She has spoken every week for the past 31 weeks at anti-government protests. And this time, she was asking us all to give her community the same courtesy. Thousands of Israelis answered the call. Here is how Ghadir described the event:

Coming back from the march in Tel Aviv full of excitement, from the amount of people who came, I was excited to meet everyone I was able to meet, I was more excited to hear from many people I didn't know who came because of my post.

In my estimation there were 15,000-20,000 participants, I was excited to see Jewish and Arab leaders who marched together, representatives of civil society organizations that managed to raise the march.

The partnership with you is very important to me, important to me as a partner in the fight for democracy, equality and justice, important to me for someone who believes in the Jewish Arab partnership.

There were moments when I just cried.

This is just the beginning, you reduced me, let's hope that it's possible differently.

I wanted to meet and hug them all so much, but to my happiness, so many people came that I didn't get to meet you...

We'll meet on Saturday night at protests, I'll speak in Rosh Pina

Together we will win

I encourage you to click on her original post and flip through her photo album. You may just cry, too.

Crowds carrying 143 coffins representing the Arabs who have been killed by violence so far this year, which the government continues to ignore and even exploit.

I encourage you to read the post of Rabbi Reverend Dr. Haviva Ner David about this event. Below are some excerpts:

Yesterday was a turning point in the resistance movement here in Israel….It was called "The March of the Dead" and it was one of the most powerful demonstrations I have experienced -- if not the most powerful……It was moving to see the variety of people who came to participate: Arabic speakers and Hebrew speakers, religious and secular, young and elder. I was walking behind two ultra-Orthodox men for a while during the march…

I pray that last night's demonstration is the beginning of more partnership between the leaders of the resistance movement and activists and leaders in the Arab sector. Because only together do we have any chance to overthrow this government and create the change we want to see here.

Where there’s life there’s hope.

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