The 14-year-old girls who spent three weeks in jail because they refused to identify themselves after being arrested at an illegal outpost are just one example of what is happening in the religious Zionist camp. It is easy to feel sympathy for minors whom the legal system arrested as a form of punishment, since arrest is not supposed to serve this purpose. In that sense, the court that released them was right to do so. But on the other hand, it is impossible to separate this act of rebellion from its context: a growing number of citizens who deny the state's right to enforce its laws on them.
Through this symbolic act of rebellion, and the religious Zionist leadership's overwhelming silence in response to it, religious Zionism has positioned itself as a movement that denies the sovereignty of the state. It is no accident that the movement's leadership displayed sympathy for the girls. Such widespread rejection of the Israeli legal system's authority cannot be found among Israel's Arab citizens, among the non-Zionist anarchists of the left nor even in the most extreme ultra-Orthodox circles.
This tacit support for the girls also reflects support for illegal settlement, and it highlights the serious problem of the new religious Zionists, whose loyalty to the state is conditional. As long as the state serves the goals of the settlements, they support it. But the moment a contrary decision is made - on territorial withdrawals or evacuation of outposts - this camp allows itself to break the law. If every group whose demands were not accepted were to behave this way, it would not be possible to maintain a state. No political camp has dared to challenge the state as blatantly as the national religious camp has done since the disengagement. The girls' silence under arrest was only an appetizer.
Another serious problem in the religious Zionist camp is the way its members turn a means into an end. The settlement enterprise was supposed to serve the state. But it has become an end in itself, which first and foremost serves the religious Zionists. By comparing a freeze on settlement construction to the British Mandate's White Paper, the settlers have shown that they view the institutions of the state as a foreign government. It is no wonder that some members of this camp are even willing to engage in terrorism and violent behavior. The tolerance with which they are treated merely encourages them. The message that these girls are trying to send is that there is no chance of evacuating outposts - not now, and not ever.
The problem is not the silence of the girls, but the silence of the leadership. Religious Zionism is slowly removing itself from the camp that carries the torch of the Zionist enterprise, and one can legitimately ask whether its behavior is not becoming anti-Zionist. The use of illegal means in order to achieve their goals has become normative behavior. It is hard to level complaints against teenage girls when MK Aryeh Eldad is personally setting up an illegal outpost. Even if he is not part of religious Zionism's flesh and blood, he sets an example for these girls.
In the past, religious Zionism symbolized the actualization of the state. Today, it symbolizes rebellion against the state. And its leaders bear the responsibility. This is not the passing caprice of a few teens, but the metamorphosis of an entire camp from a center of constructive activity to a center of subversion.
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