T’ruah expresses our horror at the “price tag” (“tag mechir“) attack last night in the northern West Bank, in which Jewish terrorists murdered an 18-month-old baby, Ali Saad Dawbshe, seriously wounded his parents and four-year-old brother, and destroyed their home and that of another Palestinian family.
The words “revenge” and “long live the Messiah” were spray-painted in Hebrew on the side of their home.
We have already heard condemnations of this attack from Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Israeli Defense Forces, Knesset members from across the political spectrum, and even Dani Dayan, head of the settler Yesha Council. These condemnations cast the perpetrators as independent actors, who do not represent Israel or the Jewish people. But such condemnations mean little without action to change the systems that make attacks such as these far too routine.
The attackers may be “bad weeds” but they grow from a poisonous context that is funded and tolerated by the State–through its military, its parliament, and even its official rabbinate.
Just as we do not dismiss Palestinian terrorists as “bad apples,” we cannot ignore the systems that have produced these perpetrators. These include first and foremost the occupation, which trivializes Palestinian lives and destroys Israel’s soul; the privileging of the demands of settlers over both Palestinians and other Israelis; an educational system that teaches only one side of the story; rabbis and communal leaders who preach hate; settlements and yeshivot that cultivate people who feel empowered and entitled to carry out horrific crimes; and different legal systems for Palestinians and Israelis, within which perpetrators of “price tag” attacks are rarely arrested and even more rarely convicted.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort after the pain of Tisha b’Av. As we read Isaiah’s promise that “The Presence of the Lord shall appear; And all flesh, as one, shall behold,” we struggle with the diminishment of the Divine Presence in Israel, and with the continued reality that “all flesh” is not treated equally, but that Israelis and Palestinians live according to two different systems of law.
Tomorrow, Jews around the world read not only the comforting words of Isaiah, but also Moses’ reminder to the Israelites that our covenant is based on law. “See, I have imparted to you laws and rules, as the Lord my God has commanded me, for you to abide by in the land that you are about to enter and possess. Observe them faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and discernment” (Deuteronomy 4:5-6). Among the Ten Commandments recited tomorrow: You shall not kill. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or his land, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
The time has come not only for condemnation but also for a serious heshbon hanefesh–self-accounting. The attack is horrific, but it should not come as a surprise. Just in the last few weeks, less publicized violent acts by settlers have included assaults and destruction of Palestinian lands.
We Jews, who have too often been the victims of hatred, must heed the words of our parashah, “Take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. And make them known to your children and to your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). We must not carry out or condone acts of hate, whose horror we recognize far too well.
We pray for comfort and healing for Sa’ad and Reham Dawabshe and their surviving 4-year-old son Ahmed Dawabshe as they mourn for baby Ali and heal from their physical wounds. And we commit to continued action to end the system of occupation that allows murderous hatred to fester, that compromises the lives of Palestinians, and that threatens both the security and the soul of Israel and the Jewish people.