Rifle-wielding settler extremists filmed dancing at wedding to anti-Zionist anthem

Israeli television on Thursday aired footage from what it said was a wedding held earlier this week, attended by settler extremists in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.

In the clip broadcast by the Kan public broadcaster, the so-called hilltop youth can be seen dancing to a song that has become something of an anthem for the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect of ultra-Orthodox Judaism and includes the phrase, “We do not believe in the rule of the heretics.”

While the anthem is regularly heard at certain ultra-Orthodox gatherings in Israel, its performance at the wedding in the West Bank highlighted how extreme some parts of the settler movement have become in rejecting the authority of the state.

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Promoted: JPPI, Rabbi Sharon Brous

One of the participants at the wedding is seen waving what appears to be an IDF-supplied automatic weapon in the air, while another wields a pistol.

A third participant waves a flag in support of Ariel Dahari, a resident of an illegal outpost who was filmed beating a Palestinian woman with a club last year.

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The clip also showed the wedding singer leading a chant of “We’ll break the teeth of the Zionists” with the crowd’s participation.

Shortly after the wedding, settlers reportedly torched a vehicle in the nearby village of Beit Ummar. They also spray-painted a message in Hebrew that read, “Regards, Dahari and mazal tov.”

No arrests were made.

Kan also showed footage from other recent hilltop youth weddings in which a settler brandishes a sword while hanging out of a car, and another holds up a rifle atop a horse.

Video shows settlers stealing Palestinian olives

Separately Thursday, security camera footage captured settlers stealing olives belonging to residents of the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Burin, adjacent to the Givat Ronen outpost.

As in previous years, the annual olive harvest has seen daily attacks by settlers against Palestinian farmers.

Settlers were also filmed Thursday stomping on olives picked by Palestinians and kicking them into the dirt in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank. Foreign activists trying to reach the area in order to protect Palestinians from attack were barred from doing so by Israeli forces.

Both incidents came after a recent religious ruling by a prominent ultranationalist rabbi permitting Jews to harvest olives belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, which prompted a police complaint that investigators are now examining.

Also Thursday, police said officers detained 11 foreign activists and one Palestinian after their group tried to harvest olive trees in an area of the southern West Bank without coordinating in advance with authorities as required.

Police said in a statement that the area that the Palestinians and foreign activists tried to reach was a closed military zone.

One video from the area showed Israeli forces detaining the group, and another showed settlers attacking them and trying to destroy the olives that they picked.

Israeli and foreign activists have been showing up in the West Bank in growing numbers in order to try to protect Palestinians from settler attacks while harvesting their olives.

On Wednesday, police and the IDF claimed that a similar incident had taken place near the Beitar Illit settlement — and involved Congressional candidate Brad Lander — but official Defense Ministry maps later proved that the area in question did not, in fact, require prior coordination in order to enter.

Police said that during the latest incident, the activists refused to identify themselves or leave the area, leading to their detention.

Officers subsequently examined the social media accounts of the activists and discovered that two of them had published posts expressing praise for “terrorists,” police claimed, without elaborating.

All 11 foreign activists were transferred to the Population Immigration and Border Authority for a hearing on their deportation from Israel, police said.

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