Israeli Settlers Stopping More Aid Trucks Than Ever. They've Got Help.

Right, so attacks by settlers on convoys of aid heading for Gaza are often posted stories on social media, from people laying down in the path of trucks, to blockading the entry points, slashing the tyres of the trucks and then destroying the aid they are carrying, a level of depravity that utterly disgusts us as we in turn on social media also see the images of those caught up in a man made famine, created by the Israeli state on the people of Gaza, mostly right now holed up in Rafah.
As much as workarounds are trying to be attempted, with Israel refusing to police their citizens and stop their life threatening interference, the aid is still not getting in and those determined to block its path to people in desperate need too often seem to be in the right place at the right time to cause maximum obstruction and now it’s been exposed that there is a very good reason for that – the Israeli Security Forces are tipping them off.
Right, so amongst all the scenes of devastation and desperate need we see in places like Rafah and Jabalia, where Israeli forces are still relentlessly pursuing what Benjamin Netanyahu still risibly refers to as Total Victory, as much as those scenes upset us, and anger us, anger directed both at the Israeli regime and out own government who incessantly support this atrocity, I would argue that what makes me just as angry, even more angry perhaps since it gets far less media attention are the scenes of Israeli settlers, I suppose even that is contradictory, settlers at any rate, so few of them actually tend to be Israeli by birth after all, they’re just as likely to be from Brooklyn, or Bethnal Green than from Israel itself. But such is the right to resettlement law Israel has, that the scenes of these people wherever they are from, these settlers, living on land that isn’t theirs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories so often, but Israel itself as well, though you can argue under which borders the differentiation lies, but settlers interfering with aid convoys intended for Gaza right now. This has been carrying on for almost as long as the genocide has. Stopping the aid, the excuse being the food, the supplies, they are all going to go to Hamas, when there are literal aid agencies, such as UNRWA, establishing where the aid is going, ensuring it is getting to those who need it.
But of course UNRWA itself isn’t trusted by Israel, they’ve already attempted to bring about the agencies collapse by lying about Hamas ties the agency has, claiming they had proof that never saw the light of day and slowly but surely funding to them has been resumed, yet still we see these scenes of settlers blocking trucks, ensuring the aid is hindered that it cannot get through and now with Israel having seized control of the Rafah Border Crossing and closing it, illegally and in violation of peace accords it has with Egypt in so doing, the Camp David Accords, aid is more hindered than ever, directly so by the Israeli state in that case.
Therefore to find out that Israeli security forces, the IDF, Shin Bet and whoever else might be implicated, have been tipping off the settler aid attackers as to when aid is due to be allowed through certain crossings, is probably going to surprise nobody, but of course this puts Israel blatantly in violation of the International Court of justice rulings which were laid down back in February that aid must be allowed in and that has been reinforced in additional rulings in March and this month, as Israel continues its assault on Gaza and particularly right now Rafah, where most of the population of Gaza remain trapped.
Now the settlers that are chiefly responsible for the attacks on aid convoys are an organisation calling themselves Tzav 9, which formed via Facebook, these are settlers living in the Occupied West Bank, so on land they have no business occupying themselves, taken from Palestinians, around 400 of them now. These are Israelis – or settlers from elsewhere calling themselves such - incensed by the idea that aid should get into Gaza, that starving the population of much needed, food, medicine and other essential supplies was entirely justifiable, in light of the Hamas attack on October 7th. 8 months later, what they are doing is widely viewed as entirely disproportionate and genocidal, the reaction so far over the top, that over 100,000 Gazans, are dead missing or injured, mostly women and children and yet this lot continue to blockade aid and now we find out that the IDF and others have been helping them to co-ordinate their efforts to cause the maximum obstruction and maximise the famine being inflicted on innocent people. The vast majority of people in Gaza are not Hamas, over half the population are under 18, it’s a war on kids, has been from the start, Netanyahu’s Total Victory that he seeks is a war being waged on children.
But co-ordinating with the IDF, the likes of Tsav 9 can put up roadblocks on the right roads ahead of the trucks coming and have time to get as many bodies as possible in the way to stop the trucks passing through.
Their spokesperson to much of the media has been a French-Israeli called Rachel Toutitou and in coverage from the Guardian – shock horror, one of our papers has actually picked up this story, though it appears to have been deleted now, accessible only in other publications that have covered their story. Nevertheless, here’s an excerpt from Yeni Safak, a Muslim Turkish newspaper, referring to the Guardian article and the justification made by Tsav 9 and an admission that the IDF are feeding this group information:
‘The settlers claim the aid is diverted to Hamas, but the allegations have been rejected by relief agencies.
"Yes, some of our intel comes from individual members of Israeli forces," Rachel Touitou, a spokesperson for the Tzav 9 group involved in attacks against aid trucks, told The Guardian.
Distancing from recent arson attacks on aid trucks, she admitted that the group blocks the aid trucks in order to stop supplies reaching Hamas.
The newspaper also spoke to Palestinian truck drivers carrying the aid to Gaza who described the attacks as "barbaric scenes."
“There is full cooperation between the settlers and the army. We are shocked and surprised that the army did not provide us with any kind of protection. Even though they were present and watching what was happening. The army was at the service of the settlers,” said Yazid al-Zoubi, 26, a Palestinian lorry driver who was attacked by the protesters last week at Tarqumiya checkpoint.’
That attack last week was aid coming from Jordan incidentally, passing through the West Bank, which I covered in another video.
Nevertheless, in spite of the incapacitation of the Rafah Border Crossing thanks to Israel, there is another option which has now been opened by Egypt the crossing at Kerem Shalom, which is situated at the point where the borders of Gaza, Israel and Egypt all meet, a three-way crossing, with 200 aid trucks and four fuel trucks due to enter via this way tomorrow. It remains to be seen if the settlers appear once again, to try and stop it, but every time they do, it is one more example, one more charge in the casebook building up against Israel, that not only have they been failing to deal with their settlers blocking aid that has been legally mandated to enter, but that they are actually accessory to these actions, aiding and abetting it as seems to be the case.
To my mind this is butting heads against the wall, this is Genocide Joe trying to look like he’s doing something, since he had the one on one with Egypt’s Prime Minister Sisi to get this other crossing opened, whilst continuing to not hold Israel to account, instead set on attacking the ICC in preference, in response to the Chief Prosecutor there, Karim Khan, requesting arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, therefore demonstrating that even now, even in light of this, he is on the side of Israel still and not their victims and therefore still there is insufficient pressure to bring Israel to heel and end this mess. For their part the ICC is standing their ground, perhaps there are more arrest warrants to come? Find out about that, in this video recommendation here for you to watch next if you are so inclined and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.