Armed with a sledgehammer, Knesset Education Committee and Judea and Samaria Affairs Subcommittee Chairman MK Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionist Party) arrived at the Palestinian Arab villages of Madama and Burin near the Jewish community of Yitzhar on Tuesday morning and worked to destroy monuments memorializing terrorists.
According to Sukkot, he took matters into his own hands after the defense establishment did not heed his request to dismantle the monuments to those who murdered Jews.
Sukkot's actions come after the hilltop youth-affiliate news site Hakol Hayehudi published an exposé revealing that monuments glorifying terrorists were erected in the villages and that there were even events held around them during which sweets were distributed to children.
Among the terrorists memorialized by the monuments was Yaman Tayeb Ali Faraj, who, according to Supreme Court findings, was involved in sending the terrorist who conducted the 2003 terror attack at the Geha Interchange in central Israel, murdering Adva Fisher, Staff Sergeant Noam Leibowitz, Corporal Angelina Shcherov, and Corporal Rotem Weinberger, and wounding 20 others.
Another monument that MK Sukkot destroyed in Burin was dedicated to Hamdan Hussein Mahmoud a-Najar. In December 1988, a-Najar assaulted Yaakov Faraj near Har Bracha, murdered him, stole his gun, and opened fire at IDF forces responding to the incident. The gunfire killed Pvt. Arthur Harzig and wounded two other soldiers before soldiers eliminated the terrorist.
The move was met with strong criticism from across the political spectrum, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who saw the act as vigilantism.
“The IDF is the sovereign authority in Judea and Samaria and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the political echelon. Taking the law into one’s own hands, particularly by public officials, is unacceptable and prevents the IDF from focusing on its missions against terrorism and incitement," Netanyahu stated.
“Together" Party chairman Naftali Bennett responded: “The chaos government is harming Israel’s security and its standing in the world in order to scrape together views on TikTok. Terrorism is fought through action, not pathetic provocations. It was not enough for Smotrich and Sukkot to serve as the architects of the Draft Evasion Law and abandon IDF soldiers to carry the burden alone. Now they are also undermining their missions and endangering their lives for election campaign videos.
“Netanyahu knows they are dragging Israel to an unprecedented low, but he cannot do anything because he has no government without Ben-Gvir and the anti-Zionist haredi parties. It will take years to repair the damage they have caused, but everything they have destroyed, we will fix," Bennett asserted.
Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the “Yashar!" Party, responded: “Tzvi Sukkot’s conduct is a disgrace for someone who purports to represent the public and be a leader. He lied to and misled the IDF and its commanders, harmed security and tarnished the entire State of Israel."
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also criticized the move. "MK Tzvi Sukkot, like any other member of Knesset, is not the sovereign authority in Judea and Samaria. Decisions must be made and implemented by the state and its authorities, the IDF and the security forces, and by them alone. This is also the message that elected officials should convey to the public. Unfortunately, MK Sukkot knowingly did the opposite."
The move was even seen with distaste within Sukkot's own Religious Zionist Party. In an internal party WhatsApp group, MK Ohad Tal wrote: “I want to understand - was this move coordinated with the campaign? Is there some deep strategy behind it that I am completely missing, or have we simply decided to commit political suicide once and for all? I’m genuinely asking."
Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich reprimanded Sukkot and told him that the proper course is to act with authorization and within the bounds of one’s authority, “as is done on matters concerning Judea and Samaria communities," and demanded that he not do anything like this again.
In an earlier appeal to the defense establishment, Sukkot argued that individuals who harmed Israelis should not be commemorated in public spaces under Israeli security responsibility. He maintained that beyond removing the physical structures, it is necessary to prevent terrorists from being turned into role models and to stop the legitimization of hostile acts among the younger generation.
“A few days ago, I demanded that the army remove the monuments commemorating terrorists in the murderous villages of Madama and Burin, but unfortunately, they remained. I therefore came myself and acted to remove them. My message today is simple and clear: We will not tolerate a situation in which those who harmed Jews and IDF soldiers are commemorated as heroes and presented to the next generation as figures worthy of admiration. Alongside the fight against terrorism itself, we must prevent attempts to legitimize it in the public consciousness and to raise the children in these villages, who will make up the next generation of Arabs in Judea and Samaria, on a legacy that portrays the murder of Jews as an act of heroism," Sukkot said.
He added: “Many Jews paid with their lives as a result of terrorists who came from these villages. We will not allow the murderers of Jews to be turned into heroes, nor will we allow the commemoration of terrorism to become part of our public space."
IDF officials clarified on Tuesday morning that plans had been drawn up to demolish the monument smashed by MK Sukkot in the village of Madama, near Yitzhar, and that the operation was scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.
“Dozens of similar monuments have already been demolished in Judea and Samaria, and an operation to demolish this monument legally and in an orderly manner by the security forces was scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. Preliminary inspections were also conducted by the Samaria Brigade ahead of the demolition of monuments," the officials said.