David Ben-Gurion famously stated that the state must have a monopoly on the use of force. Israel’s monopoly is currently being undermined in the West Bank.
On February 28th, Havat Gilad was razed by Israel. Havat Gilad, or Gilad’s Farm in English, is a small outpost of just “six families, some youths, three rabbits, two hourses, (sic) and a few watch dogs” according to their website. It is located just above the small Palestinian town of Jit, home to about 2500 Palestinians. Residents of Havat Gilad claim legitimate ownership of the land on which their outpost was built. However, there is controversy as residents of Jit claim it as private Palestinian property. It is situated outside of the proposed route of the security barrier for the area. Since 2002, the outpost has been razed several times by Israel. Often there have been clashes, violence and arrests. Always, the outpost has been rebuilt.
Following the most recent destruction of Havat Gilad, the residents have been enacting what is being called the “price-tag policy.” The price-tag policy is not new. The idea is that when there is destruction of settlements or outposts in the West Bank, settlers enact their revenge on the local Palestinian population. They have been known to uproot trees, set farms and buildings on fire, damage cars and other property and even to attack locals outright. In the words of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, “The goal is to create a price for each evacuation, causing Israeli authorities to think twice about carrying them out.”
On March 1st, in response to this most recent razing of Havat Gilad, settlers allegedly set fire to tires and threw a homemade bomb at the Palestinian village of Hawara, they set up roadblocks on roads leading to Jerusalem and they smashed the windshields of dozens of Palestinian’s cars in the Hebron area.
Today, a week later, Prime Minister Netanyahu came out with harsh words for this price-tag policy. He stressed that Israel does not “have private militias” and that he “unequivocally reject[s] this concept and those who break the law will be dealt with accordingly.” In the meantime, every razed building at Havat Gilad has already been rebuilt and the foundation has been laid to build four additional structures.
One cannot help but wonder what David Ben-Gurion would have thought watching the re-factioning of Israeli force that he worked so hard to consolidate.
