Far-right Israeli lawmaker defends violent settler attack on Palestinian family

A far-right Israeli member of Knesset justified and defended a violent settler attack on a Palestinian family which took place on Friday.

Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech, who is part of the extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, spoke about the attack during a Knesset committee meeting.

Har-Melech told opposition lawmaker Gilad Kariv that he was not familiar with the details of the incident since his information was based on media reports, despite Kariv stating his information was based on the family’s testimony.

On Friday, the Palestinian Al-Jaar family were travelling to the occupied West Bank City of Nablus when they made a wrong turn into the Giva’at Ronen settlement, after following their navigation system which took them off the main road.

According to Israeli media, the family were met with violent Israeli settlers who held a gun to the three-year-old Palestinian girl’s head, pelted them with stones and burned their car.

The family said the settlers sprayed them with tear gas, forcing them to call the police for help but said "there was no sense of urgency".

Har-Melech continued to defend the attack, saying "think about it. When a vehicle enters without an Israeli license plate, we know the dangers and threats, then we cannot compromise."

"An incident like this could be espionage or intelligence-gathering," she added.

The family told Israeli media they explained to the settlers that they were citizens of Israel and had only entered the settlement by mistake but were still violently attacked.

The Israeli Haaretz reported Israeli police said no one was arrested or investigated in relation to the attack.

Following the incident, the Israeli N12 News stated the family members had suffered from burns and bruises and had to be transferred to the Rabin Medical Centre-Beilinson Campus for treatment.

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, rights groups have raised the alarm on the increased attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Israeli military either took part in or did not protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank that have displaced people from 20 communities and have entirely uprooted at least 7 communities since October.

"Israeli settlers have assaulted, tortured, and committed sexual violence against Palestinians, stolen their belongings and livestock, threatened to kill them if they did not leave permanently, and destroyed their homes and schools under the cover of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza," the rights group stated in a report.

"While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fuelled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel’s allies, are soaring," Bill Van Esveld, the associate children’s rights director at HRW noted.