Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan has penned a letter to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu demanding he censure Internal Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch and Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai for what he termed "incitement" against the residents of Judea and Samaria.
Aharonovitch endorsed the use of the FN303 "pneumatic gun" against residents of Havat Gilad during the razing of homes there, saying, "Police officers faced a concrete threat during operation, forcing them to use crowd dispersal means." Aharonovitch characterized the behavior of protesters at Havat Gilad as "massive resistance and 'rioting.'"
In his letter Dayan pointed out, "Last week Internal Security Minister Mr. Yitzchak Aharonovitch overwhelmingly backed the scandalous, indiscriminate firing [with plastic bullets - ed.] by the Israeli Police at Havat Gilad without taking into account conflicting data (as if no one was hurt, for example) and made baseless accusations against the settlers."
Dayan added, "...yesterday we were amazed to hear in the Knesset Deputy Defense Minister Mr. Matan Vilnai justify a baseless and outrageous scenario presented to reservists while preparing for deployment [at Havat Gilad - ed.], in which a resident sitting in his home holds a knife to the throat of the soldier evicting him and is shot in the head. It should be noted, even the army does not endorse the scenario presented and trained for under the guidance of senior command. They are ministers in your government and it is not justified for them to incite against the settlements."
According to Dayan, "Mr. Prime Minister: during your visit to the military in the Jordan Valley this week, and then in the Knesset, you spoke correctly against the phenomenon called "price tag." Indeed, damage to property of innocent people is contrary to moral standards in general, and Jewish ethics in particular. But I expect that as we condemn and act against the small minority of settlers who perpetrate such acts you shall make it clear you also censure them [statements made by Aharonovitch -ed]. What he [Aharonovitch] said is a deliberate attempt to delegitimize settlement, incites against it, and encourages the trigger-happy. It would be good if this will be done by you before a disaster. "
Aharonovitch's comments were made in response to a question posed by MK Yariv Levin (Likud) who asked why pneumatic bullets were used against protestors - a tactic that created an uproar among many residents of Judea and Samaria, some of whom called for "day of rage" in response, and generated calls for an inquiry into the incident by many nationalist MKs.
Levin rejected Aharonovitch's explanation, which focused on the testing and approval process for the FN303 rather than specific tactical reasons for the decision to employ the weapon, saying the decision "stained decision makers – Jews who shoot at Jews. Part of the role of police is to exercise restraint and this could have been prevented by instructing police not to use weapons against settlers in Judea and Samaria who suffer quite a lot as it is."