Michael Ben-Ari
Michael Ben-AriFlash 90

Hundreds gathered at the Samaria community of Yitzhar on Thursday for Passover celebrations, and to express support for the town's Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva which was seized by the border police as a base last Friday.

A circular pattern of clashes between IDF soldiers and Yitzhar residents escalated last week, after a house was destroyed the week before, sparking tire-slashings on two IDF cars. In response four local homes were demolished, setting off clashes and the destruction of an IDF outpost.

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari spoke at the event, using the disease of muscular dystrophy as a parable to condemn the Israeli government's handling of the situation.

Muscular dystrophy "in general harms the more crude organs first, such as the waist. (The organs) lose sense, feel and the ability to function," remarked Ben-Ari.

"Unfortunately the disease continues to harm more internal organs, but the thinking of people with muscular dystrophy generally remains clear," continued the former MK. "Sometimes that isn't good, because they feel the great suffering."

Ben-Ari brought the example home by discussing another "suffering patient," namely the government of Israel.

"I look today at our leadership - they give the impression that they have reverse muscular dystrophy. The thinking has been offline for a long time already, only the hands and legs work without any thought, hands of roughness and destruction," criticized Ben-Ari.

The former MK went to slam the government for having "legs that don't know where to go, hands that don't know who to hit, everything is mixed up."

Ben-Ari added that he doesn't agree with the Yitzhar residents who attacked the IDF, adding that he doesn't feel a need to denounce them in order to feel good about himself and say "I'm not them." He added: "those who are confident in themselves don't need to attack others to prove who they are," remarking on attacks by other MKs on him while he was in the Knesset.

'Hands that don't know who to hit' - equal enforcement of the law?

Amid the third batch of terrorist release "gestures" last December, Ben-Ari was similarly outspoken in his criticism of the government, and particularly the Jewish Home party for being partners in a "government of blood" that frees murderers.

Regarding the recent seizure of the Yitzhar yeshiva last Friday, the IDF said the yeshiva was chosen "given its being a front base for violent acts against surrounding Palestinian villages and security forces."

Ezri Tovi, a spokesman for Yitzhar, responded by saying "the yeshiva building looks out on a mosque which has had a destruction order from the Supreme Court on it for many years," criticizing the unbalanced actions against the yeshiva.

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir stated said last Thursday that while attacks on the IDF were unjustified, "you have to try and look at things from the perspective of these youths. They are there on their hilltop, and forces come to destroy their homes time after time, and on the other side of the wadi, on the opposite hilltop, thousands of homes are being built illegally by Arabs and no one touches them."