Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday announced the establishment of a multi-agency body dedicated to prosecuting and stopping incidents of Jewish extremist violence against the country’s security forces.
“Those who commit acts of violence against security forces must be dealt with to the fullest extent,” warned Katz in a statement. “We will not tolerate or allow such serious phenomena,” he added.
The joint body—which will be led by the Israel Police and will include representatives of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)—will focus on prevention, investigation and prosecution.
Katz was also said to have allocated millions of shekels for programs aimed at Jewish youth activists in Judea and Samaria, also known as “Hilltop Youth.” The plan will seek to integrate them into “educational and normative frameworks that will steer them away from illegal activities.”
The emergency meeting, which Katz had called in the wake of attacks on Israeli security forces across the Binyamin region of Samaria on Shabbat and Monday, included top officials including OC IDF Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and Israel Police Judea and Samaria District chief Cmdr. Moshe Pinchi, as well as Col. (res.) Avichai Tanami, the defense minister’s coordinator for combating Judea and Samaria extremism.
According to Israel National News, all participants made it clear that most Judea and Samaria residents were not involved in the recent violence, but rather a “small, extreme minority.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday expressed support for bringing to justice the rioters allegedly responsible for burning down a military facility and attacking IDF soldiers during overnight protests.
“No civilized country can tolerate violent and anarchic acts such as the burning of a military facility, damage to IDF property and assaults on security personnel by the country’s own citizens,” he said. “Those who commit such acts undermine the rule of law and harm the state.”
Israeli media aired video footage of the protests, which were reportedly sparked by IDF soldiers shooting a 14-year-old Jewish rioter in Samaria over the weekend, showing troops were attacked with rocks.
Graffiti left at the site of the arson attack reportedly read, “Revenge from Beit She’an,” suggesting that the perpetrators were not residents of Judea and Samaria but rather hailed from the northern Israeli city.
A senior officer in the 7114th Battalion, which is deployed to the area, told Israel’s Channel 12 News that “these are people from the Center, from the Sharon plain, and not from the Binyamin communities.”
The riots were condemned by Judea and Samaria leaders, with council heads and mayors from across the region slamming the incident as a “serious violation” of Judaism’s precepts in a statement on Monday.