The Normalization Concept: Abandoning Gilad Farm Paves the Way for the Next Massacre in Judea and Samaria | Idan Marash
An opinion article arguing that the abandonment of Gilad Farm by Israeli leadership is a symptom of a dangerous normalization that invites the next disaster in Judea and Samaria. The author criticizes the delayed response after attacks and fires, and calls for equal treatment of settlement residents.
An opinion piece by Idan Marash in Maariv argues that the events at Gilad Farm—a large fire last Saturday and a deadly shooting attack in which the local security coordinator and a fighter were killed—are not isolated incidents but a symptom of a deeper disease: the leadership's habituation to abandoning the front. The author criticizes the state's delayed response, which promised regularization and reinforcement only after bloodshed, and compares it to handling similar events in central Israel. He cites Yael Shevach, widow of Rabbi Raziel Shevach who was murdered in 2018, whose home was also damaged in the fire, as an example of ongoing neglect. The author calls for equal treatment of residents of Judea and Samaria and for making settlement a continuous policy, not just a response to terror. The article uses emotionally charged language and criticizes what it sees as abandonment.