The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli settler teens was criminal in every sense of the word – on both “moral” (whatever that means) as well as political grounds. It strengthens official Israeli racism. But the murder of Palestinian Abu Khdeir by Israeli settler racists is even worse; it flows naturally from a society which has racism built into its very core.

Abu Khdeir was burned alive.

In the protests that followed this heinous act, Abu’s cousin, Tariq Khdeir was viciously assaulted by Israeli police. Below is a video of this assault.

The Israeli regime claimed that this video was “doctored” but they cannot explain the condition of Khdeir’s face upon his release:

Tariq Khdeir before and after having been beaten by Israeli police

Now, six Israelis have been arrested for the murder of Abu Khdeir. Inevitably, it will be claimed that they acted alone. However, they are being defended by a shadowy (tax exempt) Israeli non-profit group called Honeinu. This group focuses on defending Israelis accused to attacking Palestinians. It is most likely in the days to come that the accused will be shown to be linked to right win settler groups and wings of the Jewish hierarchy if not to members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament).

Completely aside from this, the entire atmosphere in Israel serves to encourage this type of atrocity.  For one thing, there is the issue of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians. Settler groups regularly assault Palestinians, burn their olive trees, etc. The Israeli regime encourages this by turning a blind eye.

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmer

entire Israeli settler families are involved in these racist attacks

In the days following the disappearance of the three Israeli teen agers, the general level of racism was brought to a fever pitch, not only by the statements of Israeli MK’s, rabbis, etc. but by the official behavior of the Israeli state, which carried out collective punishment of the entire Palestinian community. As reported by Uri Avnery, for instance, they made mass, indiscriminate arrests of hundreds of Palestinians, including anybody ever suspected of having been associated with Hamas in any way.

Thus the stage was set: The constant level of official racism; hundreds, possibly thousands of acts of racist violence carried out by the settlers and rarely if ever punished (see, in the photo above, the Israeli soldiers standing passively by as the Palestinian woman is attacked); and then an official policy of collective punishment of Palestinians for the disappearance (later revealed to be murder) of three Israeli teens. It was inevitable that some racists would draw the conclusion that the murder of a Palestinian was justified in response.

All of official Israel stands guilty. This in no way justifies the murder of the three Israeli teens, as we explain above, but it is the State of Israel, and their US sponsor, who are in control and have set the stage for this.