The school that was attacked by Palestinian militants was no ordinary school. Of course violence should always be abhorred no matter who is committing it. But let us take a look at this religious school. It is called Mercaz HaRav and it was founded by a rabbi named A.Y. Cook and later lead by his son T.Y. Cook . A.Y. Cook has claimed “The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews-all of them in all different levels – is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle” (Shahak & Mezvinsky, p.ix). Many of the graduates from this school go onto Gush Emunim (Haaretz.com) which organizes Jewish settlers in attacks on Palestinians throughout the West Bank(Shahak & Mezvinsky, p. 20). It has declared one of its missions is to disposes Palestinians from 100% of Palestine (Shahak & Mezvinsky, p. 20).

These attacks include beating and shooting Palestinians (Kibush.co.il). They also include poisoning their live stock (Kibush.co.il). The source described an incident where a settler washed their dog in a Palestinians drinking water. Jewish settlers are usually not prosecuted for attacking Palestinian villagers. Many Palestinians who are attacked near Jewish settlements are found by the Israeli authorities to have beaten themselves up. Palestinian villagers are an easy target because they are shot on sight if they are armed so they are usually not armed. Settlers on the other hand are allowed to be armed.

Shlomo Aviner a rabbi in Gush Emunim has said “While god required other normal nations to abide by abstract codes of justice and righteousness, such laws do not apply to Jews”(Shahak & Mezvinsky, p.71). Rabbi Lior who graduated from the school was stopped by the Israeli Attorney General from being elected to Israel's supreme Rabbinical counsel (wikipedia.org). He publicly proposed conducting medical experiments on captured Arab terrorist (wikipedia.org). The source for this piece suggest Gush Emunim thinks all Palestinians or Arabs as they call them are terrorist. He has also with other rabbis issued ruling stating that Jewish law forbids renting to or employing Arabs (wikipedia.org)

This group and groups like this are increasing there influence in the Israeli military (Shahak & Mezvinsky, p.65). This scares Palestinians who are the targets of these groups.

Based on Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign Posting (www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php)

1) Shahak, I. And Mezvinsky, N. (1999) Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, London, Pluto Press
2)http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961727.html
3)http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=6967
4)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov_Lior