‘Settler terrorism’: IDF, Shin Bet condemn revenge rampages in West Bank
Far-right ministers lashed out at the army and intelligence agency for calling the settler attacks terror, with one minister comparing them to the notorious Russian Wagner Group.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet intelligence agency have condemned dozens of settler attacks against Palestinian cars, homes, and fields in the West Bank the past week, referring to it as “nationalist terrorism.”
“In recent days, violent attacks have been carried out by Israelis in Judea and Samaria against innocent Palestinians. These attacks contradict every moral and Jewish value; they constitute, in every way, nationalist terrorism, and we are obliged to fight them,” joint statement by IDF chief Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai read.
Ambassador
Shameful acts on the Sabbath .
This is not who we are .
These are acts of terror performed by Criminals .
We are doing what we can .
One of the Perpetrators has been handed over to the Police . https://t.co/kjRogsff9e— Lt. Col. Richard Hecht (@LtColRichard) June 24, 2023
“Israel’s security forces are operating against those rioters, risking the lives of IDF soldiers, Israel Police officers and ISA (Shin Bet) personnel. This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the State of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism. It also diverts the security forces from their main mission of operating against Palestinian terrorism,” the statement added.
The security echelon also warned that it would conduct an increased number of arrests, “including administrative arrests of the rioters who act in a violent and extreme manner inside the Palestinian towns” while calling on settlement leaders to denounce the continued attacks.
The settler revenge rampage began Tuesday evening last week, following a terror attack committed by two Hamas members in at a restaurant and gas station near the settlement of Eli in the West Bank, where four Israelis were killed.
Since then, hundreds of settlers have been involved in attacks on dozens of Palestinian towns and villages every day, burning homes, cars, and fields, as well as physically attacking innocent Palestinians.
The IDF admitted that it failed to prevent the attacks from taking place. But the security echelon’s description of the attacks as “terror” was met with harsh criticism by far-right ministers and coalition lawmakers.
“They issued a message about Jewish nationalist terrorism. Who do you think you are? The Wagner Group? Who are you to issue such a message under the government’s nose? Are they going to preach to us?” said National Missions Minister, Orit Strock, from the Religious Zionism party, referring to the Russian paramilitary organisation.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid immediately condemned Strock for her comments, saying: “A minister in Israel who compares the army chief of staff, the police commissioner and the head of the Shin Bet to rebel mercenaries is not worthy and cannot sit in the Israeli government.”
But Strock was just one of many in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition who attacked the IDF and Shin Bet for describing the settler attacks as terror.
Finance Minister and leader of Religious Zionism, Betzalel Smotrich, claimed that the “attempt to create an equivalency between murderous Arab terror and (Israeli) civilian counter-actions, however serious they may be, is morally wrong and dangerous on a practical level.”
Likud lawmaker, Danny Danon, also issued a statement criticising the security establishment, saying “serious violence of a handful of settlers does not come close to the murderous Palestinian terrorism.”
It has been widely documented by human rights groups and eyewitnesses in the West Bank that it wasn’t just a handful of settlers, but nearly 300 who took part in one of the largest attacks agains the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya.
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