Ben Gvir: Israeli army should shoot Palestinians throwing stones to stop settler violence

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on the army to use live fire on all Palestinians caught throwing stones to stem settler violence.

Ben Gvir's comments came in response to an outcry after dozens of armed Israeli settlers rampaged through the West Bank village of Jit, murdering 23-year-old Rashid Sedda and torching cars and houses.

In a statement posted on X on Thursday night following the rampage, the far-right minister said: "I said this afternoon to the Chief of Staff that the soldiers' failure to give support, by shooting every troublemaker throwing stones, leads to events like those that happened."

Ben Gvir blamed the Israeli army's "inaction", which he said led to violence as they were the ones "required to deal with terrorism and deterrence, including against the terrorists in Jit village".

Other Israeli politicians issued a rare rebuke of Thursday's attack, with the prime minister's office issuing a statement saying Benjamin Netanyahu "takes seriously the riots that took place this evening in the village of Jit" and would find and prosecute those responsible.

The vicious attack was the latest in a wave of extreme settler violence to engulf the occupied West Bank since 7 October.

Official Palestinian figures said that during this period, over 620 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, over 5,400 wounded, and over 1,285 displaced as of mid-July.

Israeli newspaper Maariv’s military correspondent Avi Ashkenazi said in an interview on Israel's 103FM radio on Friday that the settlers who took part in the attack on Jit found backing from the government and knew they had impunity.

"In recent days, we have witnessed an increase in incidents of a nationalistic character in (the occupied West Bank)," he said, adding that there had been nine incidents in the last week.

"The events started last Friday with the case of the four women and the girl from Rahat, whose car was torched and who were attacked. There were further events on Saturday, including stone-throwing."

Ashkenazi stated these were "terrorist attacks", adding this view was shared by various Israeli army commanders and by the Shabak, but settlers weren't being investigated.

"Come let's look at the investigations opened into cases of nationalistic crime in the West Bank. How many of them (settlers implicated in terrorist attacks) have been charged?" he asked, implying that the police's failure to investigate settler violence meant settlers knew they would be safe from punishment.

This article is based on an article which appeared in our Arabic edition by Naif Zidane on 16 August 2024. To read the original article click here.