Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettFlash 90

In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) laid heavy criticism against the Prime Minister and Defense Minister over his handling of the controversy surrounding the shooting of an injured terrorist in Hevron.

"A serious injustice occurred here. Thursday morning there was a difficult incident in which two terrorists went out to murder and were killed during and after the incident. I am not ignoring the shooting. There was a shooting incident and it is controversial," Bennett said.

"By that afternoon, leaders in the government and the opposition, Bougie [Herzog] and [Yair] Lapid on the left, as well as the Prime Minister and Defense Minister - everyone hurried to judge the soldier who made a mistake, and (said he) acted in an illegal and immoral manner. All this occurred before the regional command's investigation and before the military police investigation. Then after everyone pronounced the sentence, they gave it to the military police investigators and told them to investigate. What sort of investigation can there be after he's already sentenced?"

He continued: "Put yourselves in the military police investigator's shoes - you get a file for investigation on Thursday night after the country's leadership already sealed the soldier's fate. It's very hard to ignore this. This is an unnecessary attack and we should not do so on the basis of a partial B'Tselem YouTube video. In the video we don't hear the voices asking about a suicide vest like you do in other videos."

"We're talking now while it's raining outside and thousands of soldiers are guarding us on our borders and in Judea and Samaria. We need to support them. I as a company commander made mistakes and received support, and my soldiers also made mistakes and I supported them. This is what we need: to support the IDF soldiers. That's the minimum."

When asked why he believes the Prime Minister and Defense Minister made their remarks, Bennett answered, "There is some desire here to please the world, the media, B'Tselem and the justice system. I don't know who to please but we must first figure out who is good and who is bad.

"The good ones here are the State of Israel and the bad ones are the terrorists who come to murder us. We are in a war against murderous terror that kills our children every day, and to throw around murder charges against a soldier... is irresponsible."