The chairman of the Otzma Yehudit Party, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, spoke at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday evening and attacked Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai for instructing police not to enforce demolition orders in Arab society during the month of Ramadan in order to prevent escalation.
MK Ben Gvir said, "Commissioner Kobi Shabtai probably wants to please the most left-wing minister in the State of Israel, Omer Barlev. If such a thing were said to the residents of Yitzhar or Hebron, the first to stand up and oppose would be Omer Barlev."
"These two people are turning the Israel Police into a joke. I now come from Shimon Hatzadik, where I made the police work, and finally make their presence known there. The rioters who curse me and try to attack me say to me, 'The Minister of Internal Security is on our side,'" he added.
In conclusion, MK Ben Gvir said, "Omer Barlev, you are harming the police, you are castrating the police and you are preventing the police from working. You are the most failed Minister of Internal Security in the history of the State of Israel."
The speech came after Shabtai ordered that demolition orders of illegal structures in Arab society not be enforced during the month of Ramadan, which will begin on April 2, as well as in the weeks leading up to it, in order prevent an escalation of the security situation.
According to Haaretz correspondent Josh Breiner, the police will avoid evictions and the execution of orders in eastern Jerusalem and the Negev, where there are demolition orders in place and the execution of which will be postponed.
A senior police official said the decision not to enforce the orders was made to prevent tensions and clashes and to allow Ramadan celebrations to be held as scheduled, "just as we would not evict a Jewish family from their home in the midst of Chol Hamoed."
The chairman of the Im Tirtzu movement, Matan Peleg, attacked Shabtai for his directive, saying, "A police commissioner who dares to announce that there will be no law enforcement against a specific sector for two months, significantly harms the rule of law and tramples on democracy. The fact that he gives this ‘prize’ to the Muslim sector in order not to upset them during Ramadan indicates cowardice and incomprehensible helplessness that leads Israel to dysfunction, anarchy and disaster."
"We have a hard time understanding how someone who was a fearless fighter became such a lax commissioner. Anyone who gives such an instruction, whether it came from above or not, must resign immediately. Such a provision abandons the law-abiding citizens due to cowardice. It is disgraceful. Awarding a prize to terrorism and bloodthirsty people," Peleg added.