NEW ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY
Israel to curb ‘Jewish terrorism’
Israeli leaders have proposed harsh new measures to curb “Jewish terrorism,” following a wave of extremist violence that left Israeli and Palestinian children dead in knife and arson attacks.
An Israeli teenager, described by her parents as a sweet and magical child, succumbed to her wounds Sunday after being stabbed by a Jewish extremist at a gay pride parade last week.
Hours earlier, thousands of Israelis held anti-violence rallies across the country protesting attacks by Israeli assailants against gays and Palestinians.
Israelis were reeling from the fast-moving violence of recent days that included Jewish settlers clashing with government forces at a West Bank settlement and a lethal arson attack in a Palestinian village that resulted in a toddler being burned to death.
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said Sunday that Israeli authorities should be allowed to employ the same heavy-handed measures against Israeli terrorism suspects that are used against Palestinian suspects in the occupied West Bank, freeing the military to seek “administrative detention” against suspects, which would enable them to hold detainees for months, and even years, in prison without charges.
After speaking out against attacks by Jewish extremists and saying he felt shame that the violence had come “from my own people,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was deluged with threats on social media, leading his security detail to file a complaint with Israeli police because of fears that the leader’s life was in danger.
Rivlin was called a “traitor” and a “terrorist” on posts written in Hebrew on Facebook and was depicted wearing a kaffiyeh, a Palestinian checkered headdress.
During a period of similar tumult two decades ago, a right-wing Jewish extremist shot and killed thenprime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 as he left a Tel Aviv peace rally attended by more than 100,000.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government will have “zero tolerance” for Jewish extremists, vowing that Israel is committed to fight “hate, fanaticism and terrorism from whatever side.”
Netanyahu then went on the offensive, applauding Israeli leaders who condemned Jewish extremists but asking why Palestinian leaders praise acts of terror on their side. “We deplore and condemn these murderers. We will pursue them to the end,” he said. “They name public squares after the murderers of children. This distinction cannot be blurred or covered up.”
Palestinian officials said it is Netanyahu and his government who have been peddling incitement.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who ordered his security forces in the West Bank to combat violent protests against Israel over the weekend, said Netanyahu wants to see violence flare in the West Bank.
“Why does Netanyahu say there is no partner for peace?” Abbas said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Is it because he has no interest in peace? His best weapon is the intifada,” a reference to the surge of suicide bombings by Palestinians in the early 2000s.
The spiral of violence began last Wednesday, when Israeli soldiers and police clashed with Jewish settlers at the West Bank community of Beit El. Israeli authorities were attempting to demolish two illegal structures at the Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah that were built without permits on private Palestinian land.
Two buildings were levelled, but only after Netanyahu said 300 housing units would be built in their place.
On Thursday, Israel’s gay community came under attack as a suspect described as an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed six people at the gay pride parade in Jerusalem.
On Friday, arsonists set fire to two homes in the Palestinian village of Duma in the West Bank, burning a toddler alive and injuring three others. The investigation is under a gag order, but it appeared that no arrests had been made.