The stated goal of the Samaria Residents Committee, established in 2008, is to “serve the [Jewish] residents in Samaria and ward off — using a variety of means — any potential damage to the settlement enterprise there.” The committee is largely funded by the Samaria Regional Council and, by extension, Israeli taxpayers. Its director is the old-time right-wing activist Benny Katsover, who founded the settlement of Elon Moreh in the mid-1970s and is considered by settlers to be the founder of the settlement movement in Samaria.

Why there is a need for a committee to serve the settlers in Samaria, when that is already the purpose of the regional council, remains unclear. Some of the committee’s activities include giving guided tours of the region to journalists and politicians, planting thousands of trees and painting junctions in the area blue and white. All this is to show everyone, in case they fail to notice, that as far as the settlers are concerned, not only are the settlements an integral part of the State of Israel, but they also strengthen it.

Yet there are other, more defiant activities taking place. After the deadly Islamic State attacks in France last November, for example, the committee’s cynical way of expressing condolences to the French people was to place an order for thousands of French flags from Shahar Hafakot, a factory in the territories — a snub at the EU policy requiring the labeling of settlement goods. In an earlier episode, in February 2015, the committee put together a video likening the European states to Nazi Germany and Israeli human rights organizations to Jews who collaborated with the Nazis.

The committee's new campaign goes a step further in trying to harm Arab businesses in mixed Israeli towns, or as the committee calls, it “putting together a list of businesses that support terrorism.” As the committee sees it, Arab Israeli business owners who occasionally close their shops when the Arab sector goes on strike are supporters of terror.