Israeli ministers defend West Bank settlers suspected of killing Palestinian teen

Several members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition defended two Jewish settlers suspected of killing a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank.

The Israeli army said that a large group of settlers from the illegal outpost of Oz Zion brought their sheep to fields near the Palestinian village of Burqa on Friday night, right before Shabbat kicked in.

According to eyewitnesses who spoke to Haaretz, the settlers began vandalising Palestinian property which then led to Palestinians throwing rocks at the settlers.

“During the confrontation, Israeli civilians shot toward the Palestinians. As a result of the confrontation, a Palestinian was killed, four others were injured and a Palestinian vehicle was found burnt,” the army said.

The Palestinian who was killed was later identified as 19-year-old Qosai Jammal Mi’tan. Not long after, two settlers were arrested by Israeli security forces, suspected of killing Mi’tan.

They were later identified as Elisha Yered, a former spokesman for Jewish Power party lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, and Yehiel Indore.

Both the UK and U.S. were quick to condemn the murder, with Washington using the term “terror” to describe the attack. The Israeli army also categorised the wave of settler attacks in recent months as terror.

“It’s terrorism, there’s no other way to say it,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

The Netanyahu government did not, however, issue a single condemnation of the murder on Friday. On the contrary, several ministers and lawmakers defended the settlers, claiming they acted in “self defence” without offering any proof.

“Anyone who defends himself from stone-throwing should receive a commendation. A Jew who defends himself and others from murder by Palestinians is not a murder suspect, but a hero who will get full backing from me,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said.

Former police chiefs sent a letter to Police Chief Kobi Shabtai and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, accusing Ben-Gvir of attempting to “interfere in a criminal investigation.”

Ben-Gvir’s party colleagues, Limor Son Har-Melech and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu also defended the two settlers.

“Break a man’s head, hit him in the head. So he doesn’t have to shoot and defend himself? Where’s the question mark? We’re in the Europe of the 1930s when a Jew walks by and gets beaten and has to keep quiet? I don’t know what was there,” Eliyahu said.

Har-Melech claimed that when a police officer “neutralises a terrorist, he garners praise from defense officials. But when a Jew defends his life from an Arab mob in (the West Bank,) he’s arrested while wounded.”

I recommends that the “defence establishment direct its energy toward dealing with the terror dens instead of chasing after Binyamin residents who hold a devotion to our country,” she added.

Meanwhile, Likud lawmaker Tali Gotliv and Religious Zionism lawmaker Avi Sukkot visited one of the suspects, Yehiel Indore, who is in the hospital after sustaining head injuries from rocks thrown at him.

Their visit was widely criticised in the Israeli media for being highly unusual and controversial due to the charges against Indore.

Both Gotliv and Sukkot refused to acknowledge the chain of events described by the IDF and Palestinians. Gotliv attacked the IDF spokesperson for his “false statement that settlers entered a Palestinian village,” and that it only “serves the left’s narrative.”

Gotliv went as far as claiming that Indore was “no less than a terror victim” and that he acted in “self defence.”

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are yet to comment on the murder of the Palestinian teen.