Meet the anti-Zionist "Hilltop Youth"... wait what?!?

Former Hilltop Youth Dov Moral on Shin Bet's structural problem, with a fascinating comparison between Hilltop Youth and Kahanist's raison d'être...

[2025] Israel's secret police, Shin Bet, operates anti-democratically, systematically violating human rights-of Palestinians and Israelis alike

Moral was Hilltop Youth. Unlike Kahanists like Ben Gvir who are Zionist wanting to transform the state from within, Hilltop Youth are anti-Zionist, seeing the state itself as obstacle: blocking them from "dealing with" Palestinians, building the Temple, establishing halakhic rule. Their strategy: force every tension between "Jewish" and "democratic" to explode.

Moral participated in "price tag" attacks. Celebrated the Duma murders. Shin Bet interrogated him, which involved sleep deprivation, psychological manipulation, coercion.
Then heartbreak sent him into depression. Time abroad shifted his perspective. Now he's a human rights law intern handling administrative detention cases, married to a Haaretz editor, father of two.

So when right-wing outrage erupted over Shin Bet's so-called "Jewish Division" (the unit monitoring far-right Jewish extremists) Moral's critique focused on the real problem with the Shin Beth. The recordings exposed anti-democratic methods, but the real problem is these same methods are used daily against Palestinians without similar outcry. For example, administrative detentions jumped from ~1000 before the war to ~3500 after.

"The problem isn't the Jewish Division or the Palestinian Division. The problem is the powers given to Shin Bet and how easily exceptions are accepted." Close one division and these tools will be redeployed when politically convenient.

Hebrew https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/2025-04-07/ty-article-opinion/.premium/00000196-0fd8-d93f-a7f7-4fffcaaa0000 or https://archive.ph/A4ZcP

Hebrew https://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/2023_q3/Article-9cabc77ef6b5981027.htm

#ShinBeth #HilltopYouth #Kahanism #BenGvir #Israel #Palestine #apartheid #PolicState #Zionis #AntiZionism

@DoomsdaysCW For me there are two indications of a #PolicState:

(1) You can be stopped in the street and asked for your "papers" and arrested if you can't produce them.

(2) The police routinely carry guns.

The USA already qualifies on both points, doesn't it? (Although (1) might only apply if you look a bit brown.)