“What I saw today is the existential threat to the State of Israel,” former Mossad director Tamir Pardo stated after a visit to Palestinian villages that have been targeted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. However, dismissing Zionist history to selectively focus on settler violence absolves Israel of the role it gives to settlers – a direct participation in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Settler violence started before the Nakba, and it suited Israel’s purpose to encourage it. But of course, Pardo’s concern is not the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The concern is that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in which settlers participate under state protection, does not jeopardise Israel’s existence. Pardo said that Israeli settler […]
