The Foreign Affairs and Security subcommittee for Judea and Samaria, led by MK Zvi Sukkot, met today to deliberate on ‘anarchist violence - left wing figures who harm settlers.”
The meeting was attended by MKs Merav Michaeli and Gilad Kariv (Labor), Ariel Kallner and Nissim Vaturi (Likud), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party). Representatives of the Defense Ministry, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Precinct of Israel Police, the Civil Administration, governors, representatives of the right-wing movements Im Tirzu and B'Tsalmo, and others were invited as well.
The commander of the Judea and Samaria Precinct, Avishai Mualem, displayed data showing a 50% drop in nationalist crime by Jews, and noted the number of incidents that had been reported and had files opened by the police. He also revealed that 50% of the complaints filed by left-wing movements were false.
“Since October 7th, the data show a drop in nationalist crime by Jews of almost 50% since last year. 270 incidents have been reported since the beginning of the war, as opposed to 527 last year. In 2023, there were 63 administrative orders issued, which 16 were administrative detention orders against right-wing activists for attacking Palestinians and torching cars.”
“Since the beginning of the war, there has been a rise in the number of complaints lodged by Palestinians and protesters, with 191 cases opened. 90 of them were found to be false claims originating in the Mount Hebron area. The majority of the complaints are intentional complaints from left-wing organizations who are in Tel Aviv, and report violence by right-wing activists. In the Jordan Valley region, 70 incidents were reported, of which 50% were found to be false reports.”
During the meeting, Sukkot ordered Kariv expelled from the room when Kariv interrupted him by shouting that the organizations Sukkot was talking about were peace organizations, not anarchical organizations as Sukkot had claimed.
A video showing physical and verbal attacks by left-wing activists against settlers, prepared by Im Tirzu, was presented also.
MK Har-Melech stated: “This is a horrifying phenomenon that we see in Israel, in which IDF soldiers and settlers are attacked, the state of Israel is slandered, and vandalism is committed.”
“The state of Israel is fighting for its life against organizations that come here pretending to be tourists. This phenomenon has implications that endanger the security of Israel and its citizens, and could not continue in any other place in the world. The most effective defense is offense,” she added.
Michaeli stated: “There is a basic misunderstanding here - this is not within Israel.” When Har-Melech attempted to explain that it was happening within the ancestral heritage of Israel, Michaeli responded: “There is no denying that it is ancestral heritage, but Judea and Samaria are not part of the state of Israel. That is what needs to be at the heart of this debate.”
“There are those who attempt to create a false impression that this is within the state of Israel. I am talking of nationalist criminals, people who you represent as those attempting to protect the state's honor.”
During one of the arguments that broke out during the meeting, Har-Melech said to Kariv: “If I were you, I would not have spoken at all. You're the one who leaks things from the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.”
The governor of the Jordan Valley, David Elhayani, told the meeting: “There is a paid group of people here with the goal of inciting and causing chaos. We know how to accept differences of opinion, but what we see here is violence and lawbreaking. We know from conversations with Arabs that they support their visits, bring them into firing ranges, and even worse, make false reports that they are being fired upon. Their entire goal is to slander the settlers and Israel.”
Sukkot stated at the beginning of the debate: “We are still in the middle of a difficult war. In order to win the war, many things must be done. We must fight on the military front, work on the political front, settle, and pray. For the military victory to materialize, we need to remove everything stopping it. We cannot win without fighting those doing everything to disturb our just war.”
“It is for this reason that we have gathered today, during the war, to discuss the problem of anarchists. So much has been said unnecessarily about settler violence, but we have not been discussed, in this building, until today, the ones genuinely creating extensive and serious violence into that and Samaria - the left-wing anarchists who harass soldiers and heroic settlers.”
"This is a sick evil, and we are here to deal with it. I believe that after purging this plague, we will be one important step closer to our gladdening and important victory. Let us begin.”