After last week's murderous Palestinian terrorist attack in Eli in which four Israelis were killed, extremist Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian property Saturday evening in the village of Umm Safa, which is near Ramallah. Clashes broke out between the settlers and the residents of the village, and as a result, the IDF and Border Patrol forces who were called to police the situation used non-lethal measures to disperse demonstrations while making several arrests.
In addition to the unrest from some within the local Jewish communities, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was on leave has been arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at Palestinians, he was detained by the Israeli Police and handed over for further investigation to the Shin Bet.
Yesterday's (June 24, 2023) Joint Statement from the IDF, Shin Bet and Israeli Police re Israeli Settler Violencehttps://t.co/SevBexdJXG #Israel #IDF #ShinBet #IsraeliPolice #SettlerViolence pic.twitter.com/EdKutq3meg
ā Washington Views (@WashingtonViews) June 25, 2023
As both the IDF and Israeli Police have been working to end the clashes between Jews and Arabs in Judea and Samaria, a joint statement was released: "In recent days, violent attacks by Israeli citizens against innocent Palestinians have been carried out in the territories of Judea and Samaria. These attacks are against every moral and Jewish value and are also seen as nationalistic terrorism in every aspect, and we are obliged to fight them."
The statement by the heads of the security system also stated: "The security forces are working against those rioters, risking the lives of IDF soldiers, Israel Police officers, and General Shin Bet employees. This violence increases Palestinian terrorism, harms the State of Israel, and the international legitimacy of the security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism, and diverts the security forces from their main mission against Palestinian terrorism."
Israel's security chiefs say settler violence is terror, US demands action: IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai all issued a joint statement against settler violence. JPost https://t.co/kvftZMVe65 pic.twitter.com/bz8hDAT3Eg
ā Jewish Community (@JComm_NewsFeeds) June 24, 2023
However, there were some officials and right-wing politicians who view the crackdown on settler violence, such as the military checkpoint at the gate of the Atarot settlement, as hypocritical and a double standard.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: "The IDF and the security establishment must act with much greater determination in the face of terrorism and disorder on the part of Arabs. The attempt to create an equation between murderous Arab terrorism and non-murderous actions against civilians, however serious they may be, is wrong and dangerous. Administrative arrests against settlers are a draconian and undemocratic measure, and the fact that they are used only against settlers in Judea and Samaria and not against other violent groups in the State of Israel is severe discrimination. How can it be that in Umm Safa - the village from which Arab rioters repeatedly came out in recent days, there is no checkpoint, and in Atarot there is? I call on the army to stop this immediately."
Wow. I don't recall such a strong statement from the IDF, Shin Bet, or Israeli Police, much less all three together, denouncing settler vigilante violence as "nationalist terrorism." https://t.co/h44PfyCMf9
ā Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) June 24, 2023
Israel dismantled many of the checkpoints over the last decade. The makeshift checkpoint at the gate of Atarot was set up to capture Jewish extremists who attacked Umm Safa and fled to the nearby community to avoid police capture. Since the settlements are enclosed and there is only the main entrance that is usable, the security services set up a checkpoint to ensure everyone who leaves can be screened and the vandals who are identified can be arrested.
