The violence of extremist settlers on the West Bank as they systematically terrorize, attack and even displace Palestinian communities is a “perversion of Judaism” and a desecration of God’s name,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast in the week between the Jewish New Year and its Day of Atonement. 

Joining Weiman-Kelman on the podcast is Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American who flew from Ohio back to his home in the West Bank village of Qusra, after settlers laid siege to his neighborhood and the IDF declared a closed military zone. Ridi has been unable to leave his house for a month due to the order, and says the closure has been selectively enforced against Palestinians, while the army refuses to remove the settlers.  

Ridi is flying the American flag on his house, he said, “as a message to the U.S. government, to the U.S. officials, that I need protection and I need help.”

Weiman-Kelman, a former president of Rabbis for Human Rights and retired spiritual leader of Kol HaNeshama, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, reflected on the situation in the West Bank and the overall state of the country following Rosh Hashanah and ahead of Yom Kippur – a day on which, he said, “I want to atone for still feeling the effects of October 7, for the nationalist part of me overcoming the universal vision that is also part of me.” 

Israel today is not only threatened by external enemies, but “threatened from within by the moral center of this country beginning to shatter and disintegrate before our eyes,” he said. 

“We live in a country where people feel encouraged and empowered to express their darkest sides through acts of physical violence,” he said, including repeated vandalism to the Reform synagogue in Jerusalem he founded in 1985.

Read more:

One Month and One IDF 'Outpost Evacuation' Later, Qusra Remains Besieged by Settlers

Palestinian-American Returns to West Bank Home Besieged by Israeli Settlers

B'Tselem Says Israel Is Implementing a 'Project of Elimination' Against Palestinians in the West Bank

IDF Dismisses Commander Over Praying With Settlers at West Bank Outpost

American Rabbis Confront a Fraught Question This High Holy Day Season: How to Talk About Israel