"I am being forced to deploy troops to outposts instead of sending them to the red side. The settlers know this, but there is simply no one to talk to," officers serving in Judea and Samaria said, referring to the Palestinian side of the sector. Some of the officers themselves live beyond the Green Line. Their comments came amid efforts to deal with incidents of nationalist crime and the effect such incidents are having on the deployment of forces across the area.
An officer serving in the sector told associates: "There was chaos until midnight Saturday. At 1 a.m., I set out to make an arrest in one of the villages, and I finished at 4 a.m. As soon as I was done, I received a radio report about an incident of nationalist crime in another village. I drove there when I was already suffering from severe exhaustion."
His comments followed a tense night in Judea and Samaria, during which a mosque was set on fire in the village of Qusra, near Nablus. Revenge slogans were spray-painted at the site, and leaflets were left bearing the words, "Don't mess with us." Clashes with Palestinians were also reported, along with the torching of vehicles and tractors in several villages and an attempted arson attack at an apartment in Beit Furik.
The incidents followed a weekend marked by terrorist attacks and confrontations across Judea and Samaria. On Friday, Benayahu Malt was murdered in a terrorist attack at Havat Gilad, and Maj. Yuval Ezra was killed after a Palestinian terrorist seized a weapon. In the southern Hebron Hills, an Israeli was attacked and wounded, and his weapon was stolen. The terrorist was captured following a manhunt, and the weapon was recovered.
"I am dealing with them instead of confronting the enemy"
"I used to try to argue with them ideologically about what they were doing, but they do not listen to anything," the officer told his associates. "They did what they did and fled. It was a 'price tag' attack in response to Friday's incident. In the end, some brainless 15-year-old will throw a Molotov cocktail into a house. There is no judgment and no thought."
The officer said such incidents had direct consequences for military operations in the sector. "I am stationing troops at the outposts instead of on the red side," he said, referring to operations against the enemy. "They know this, but there is no one to talk to. I am dealing with them instead of operating on the red side."
Diverting troops to deal with nationalist crime could reduce the military's operational capabilities elsewhere, he said, and could even affect its ability to protect the outposts themselves in the event of a Palestinian attack. "If something happens to them, if Palestinians arrive, start a riot against them and kill someone there, I have no way to help them," he said.
"I told the relevant people that if someone is killed, then as far as I am concerned, on a moral level, I have not failed in any mission," the officer added. "They say that I have, but I argue with them about it."
