A West Bank settlerment''s "security coordinator"—a deputised and state-trained local official who deals with security issues—reportedly told the Israeli army soldiers to deny admission to any one who came knocking who didn't happen to be Jewish. This included those non-Jews carrying Israeli identity cards—that is, citizens of Israel—and even, as one soldier put it, "someone coming to clean the bathrooms."Not so fast, the army told Haaretz:
Following a Haaretz query to the army, it was made clear to the Bat Ayin security coordinator that forbidding entry to non-Jewish Israeli citizens is outside the guidelines for settlement security coordinators. Nevertheless, soldiers will be required to report to the local security coordinator any time a non-Jewish Israeli citizen is admitted, to ensure they be accompanied while they are in the settlement.
According to the army, at least, non-Jewish Israelis (and others?) can come in to clean the bathroom, but just don't do it without your escort.Will the army's directive be enforced? Or the security coordinator's? How many of these deputised settlement residents, numbered at some 265, have told the soldiers assigned to guard them to discriminate absolutely on the basis of religion?