At the time of a shooting attack on Tuesday afternoon in northern Samaria, the head of the Samaria Regional Council was attending meetings and giving a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. During his speech, the Council head Yossi Dagan, stopped to inform the members of parliament about the attack: "At this very moment, four people were shot on a road, right now, is anyone in this building aware of this?"
Dagan went to a series of meetings as part of the activities of the regional council's foreign relations unit, together with MK Ariel Kellner of the Likud. During a working meeting with a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, Bert-Jan Ruissen, the attack occurred in Samaria in which a resident of Mevo Dotan, and four soldiers were shot. The attack was near the place where Samaria resident Meir Temari was murdered two weeks earlier.
#Palestinians once again released a celebratory video honoring the “heroic shooting operation” yesterday where terrorists ambushed a man who had pulled over to take a phone call.
— Jay Engelmayer (@jengelmayer) June 14, 2023
The cowards approached him & fired point blank.
See the baby seat in the car?
This is depravity. pic.twitter.com/8cCDOhJuFy
Dagan linked the lack of checkpoints to international pressure on Israel, and told MP Ruissen at the meeting: "This terrorist attack is also the story of international pressure because the government in Israel is afraid of it and as a result, they opened the security checkpoints and now terrorists from the Palestinian Authority can arrive by car and shoot our citizens, and immediately return back to the territories of the Palestinian Authority."
Member of the European Parliament Jan Ruissen said for his part that "You must have the security barriers for the safety of your residents. Israel's right to protect its own residents against terrorist attacks must be respected. In a normal world, the freedom of movement of people is an important thing. But in a situation that is not normal like the situation you are in, security should have priority.” Dagan replied that "This is the reality at this very moment, and you see that there are friends here in this building who accuse us of attacking Palestinians."
“Whoever opened the checkpoint allowed our blood to spill,” Samaria council head Yossi Dagan responded, criticizing the reopening of a nearby checkpoint, where, he said, "Meir Tamari was murdered about two weeks ago.” https://t.co/Ww7acTGHWy
— Algemeiner (@Algemeiner) June 13, 2023
Immediately afterward, the two representatives from Israel were invited to speak in a discussion with other members of the European Parliament. "This is not a simple day for us, today we are two weeks after the previous attack," Dagan said, emphasizing that whoever is behind the attack is apparently the one who should be responsible from the Palestinian side for the possibility of peace. "Meir Tamari was murdered by a person from the Fatah organization, the party of Mahmoud Abbas. I myself am escorted by security guards now because terrorist organizations are threatening to assassinate me. The first organization that threatened my life was also Fatah. The same party of Mahmoud Abbas that threatens me receives money from you for salaries, which comes from your taxes."
