Posted on 29-8-2003

Terror Has Two Faces - Israeli Settlers Run Terrorist Organizations
The Palestine Monitor, 26 August, 2003

Recent discoveries have revealed a shocking new dimension to the
Palestinian Israeli conflict. Not only do Palestinian civilians experience
attacks by the Israeli armed forces, but Jewish illegal settlers are also
contributing to their inhumane oppression through terrorist attacks. Whilst
the Israeli armed forces continue to impose "security" measures upon the
Palestinians, underground Jewish terrorist cells seem to be flourishing.

Shahar Dvir-Zeliger, from the West Bank settlement of Edi Eid is one of
nine settlers recently arrested for plotting, and carrying out, terror
attacks against Palestinian civilians. Dvir-Zeliger is suspected of
planning terror attacks against Palestinians, preparing dangerous materials
and attempted murder. On Friday the 8th of August two Jewish settlers were
also charged with possessing army explosives and preparing for a terrorist
attack on Palestinian civilians. At least fifteen terrorist attacks have
been carried out in Palestinian territories since April 2001, killing nine
people.

These recent arrests have helped to expose the very real existence of a
terror network within the settlements; however, Jewish terror attacks
against Palestinians are certainly not a marginal phenomenon. One of the
most horrific attacks was carried out by Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler
who shot and killed 29 Palestinians, while they were praying in Hebron's
Ibrahimi Mosque in February, 1994. In the past two years, five bombs have
also been planted in Palestinian cities and schools. Last May a Jewish
terrorist cell was uncovered as it planed to bomb an Arab Hospital and a
school. Shlomo Dvir, 26 and Yarden Morag, 25, both from the illegal Israeli
settlement of Bat Ayin were apprehended whilst planting a powerful bomb
near a Palestinian Girls school in occupied East Jerusalem, just weeks
later another bomb exploded in the courtyard of an Arab boy's school in Sur
Bahir. In July 2001 a group calling itself "the committee for security on
the roads" claimed responsibility for the killing of a Palestinian family
in a drive-by shooting near the village of Idna. Similar groups were
uncovered during the 1980s, and members were charged with plotting to blow
up Arab buses and the Dome of the Rock. Only last month Israel publicly
admitted that there were Jewish Terror cells operating within the West Bank
who they knew were responsible for a series of attacks on Palestinian
civilians over the past years.

It is difficult to establish the extent of these Jewish terrorist
organizations. Israeli authorities have forbidden the publishing of any
real details and the security service, Shin Bet, claim their investigations
are impeded due to the difficulty of penetrating the hard core of
extremists living in the settlements. In truth, the resources and legal
measures the Shin Bet and the police use against Israeli citizens living in
the Palestinian territories are significantly weaker than any used against
the Palestinians. And, with the existence of such organizations as Kah's
illegal summer camps, where Jewish youth are taught how to bluff
interrogation, it seems likely that last weeks
exposures are just the tip of the iceberg.

For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor, +972 (0)2 298 5372 or
+972 (0)59 387 087 www.palestinemonitor.org