Letters to the Editor: The unacceptable behavior of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank

Los Angeles Times Opinion
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KIRYAT ARBA, OCCUPIED WEST BANK -- NOVEMBER 9, 2023: Tzvika Mor speaks on a phone interview with a radio station, at his home in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement that neighbors Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. MorOs 23-year-old son Eitan, a security guard at the Supernova desert party outside Gaza, is one of HamasO kidnapped hostages after the groupOs unprecedented assault on Oct 7. on Israeli communities surrounding Gaza killing 1200 Israelis and capturing more than 240 hostages. On a public television interview, Tzvika Mor quoted the Rambam D saying that during war, a person must not weaken his battle resolve with thoughts of his loved ones D wife and children D and said that even though he loves his son, his country comes first. OWe have been called to the flag, we must be ready for sacrifices,O Mor said. (MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES)
Tzvika Mor, whose son was taken hostage in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, is seen at his home in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba on Nov. 9. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: Your article on violence and tension in the West Bank quotes an Israeli settler who moved to the occupied West Bank about 25 years ago: "This is our only land. We have no other."

Another West Bank settler says he was given this land by God and that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people."

So, who exactly lived on this land before 25 years ago?

Palestinians should apparently not have their own state or have citizenship in Israel, a place where they have lived since before 1948, when the state of Israel was established.

It is outrageous that the United States is supporting Israel, which has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as retribution for the Oct. 7 attack. Palestinians have been living under apartheid conditions since well before Oct. 7; apparently, that doesn't concern us.

We are Jews who believe that Palestinians have the right to live on their land and have their own government. Being opposed to the horrendous polices of the Israeli government is not being antisemitic. It is being opposed to the horror that the Israeli government has become.

Leslie Simon and Marc Bender, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: The reprehensible ideas and practices embraced by West Bank settler David Lev and others cited in the article are inconsistent with Judaism.

The Torah is not merely a deed to land. It has numerous conditions and laws.

This is what is written in Leviticus Chapter 19: "The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

As a Jew and a Zionist, I see the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank as clearly unacceptable. Anti-peace and racist officials such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have to go.

Norman H. Green, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The Tomb of Abraham should be a symbol of hope for peace in this land.

My husband and I were part of a group of American Lutherans who visited the West Bank and Jerusalem in 2019. In Hebron, we had a Palestinian guide who could not accompany us when we visited the synagogue side of Abraham's tomb.

The tomb is unique in that it lies in both the Jewish synagogue and the Muslim mosque, extending across the joint wall of both places of worship. I like to think that such a place, sharing something sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, might be a symbol of how peace might finally come to the holy land.

The terror and killings on both sides cannot be sustained. It is only through sharing this land, as with this tomb, that we have hope for peace.

Margo Astroth, Encinitas

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.