JERUSALEM (JTA) — Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home Party, condemned Jewish extremists and affirmed his support for the Shin Bet security service in its investigation of the firebombing of a Palestinian home.
The leader of the religious Zionist political party also condemned the Jewish terrorism manifested in the recent attacks on Palestinians, including the murder of a Palestinian teen in response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens, which he called “a new approach that is being followed by a few dozen disturbed anarchists,” in a post Tuesday on his Facebook page.
“This approach is intended to destroy the ties between the Nation of Israel and the State of Israel,” Bennett wrote. This “is not the way of the Israeli right, and it is not the way of religious Zionism.”
“This is anarchy,” he wrote.
Bennett came out and called the recent attacks by Jews on Palestinians terrorism.
He wrote: “When you burn a sleeping family, that is a terrorist attack.
With a terrorist attack – you do everything to catch those responsible.
You do everything – within the limits of the law, and according to the examinations I conducted the things that were done were legal.
Just as I trust the Shin Bet to chase murderers of Jews, I trust them in this case – not without checking and not without questioning, and I am doing just that.”
Earlier on Tuesday Bennett told Army Radio in an interview that he has personally investigated the claims that teens detained in the investigation into the July 31 Duma attack, that left an 18-month-old Palestinian boy and his parents dead, have been tortured during interrogations.
“I can assert that all the actions that are taken — and they are really extraordinary actions in light of an unusual situation — are under control, and with close legal supervision, and they are aimed at preventing the next attack,” he said.
Responses on Facebook included those who accused Bennett of losing touch with his voters and called on him to resign. Comments also asserted the innocence of those being held in the Duma case and accused Bennett of being in favor of torture.
Bennett’s comments came on the same day that the home of a young Palestinian family in a West Bank village came under attack from gas grenades believed to have been thrown by right-wing extremists.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
