Decision in response to break-in at military base by hilltop youth • Defining price-tag violence as terror allows state to allocate more resources • Administrative arrest warrants and restraining orders to be issued against numerous right-wing activists.
Shlomo Cesana, Lilach Shoval, Yori AlIon and Mati Tuchfeld
Acting on a directive from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Wednesday held a meeting to look into formulating a list of legal measures to combat increasingly brazen extremist settler violence. The discussion focused on legal aspects of classifying so-called "price-tag" acts as terror. Other measures discussed included cooperation between different law enforcement bodies and the use of technology for surveillance and prevention purposes. On Tuesday, the government decided to enact a firm response to the break-in of an army base in Judea and Samaria by Jewish extremists overnight Monday. The attackers lit fires, vandalized vehicles and hit a senior Israel Defense Forces officer in the head with a rock, just hours after another group took over an abandoned building in a closed military zone on the border with Jordan.
The prime minister, along with key officials, decided to label the perpetrators of these offenses as terrorists, and to classify their crimes as terror attacks.
The shift in the government's attitude toward such crimes, seen more and more frequently in Israel and the West Bank in recent months, could be detected in remarks by Aharonovitch, who said Tuesday, "I've instructed the police to treat these vandals as they would treat terrorists."
Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday, attended by Aharonovitch and Neeman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino, Shin Bet security agency chief Yoram Cohen and Deputy Attorney General Mike Balas.
Several measures of response were formulated in this meeting. It was decided to increase to 60 the number of administrative arrest warrants and restraining orders currently in place against 13 right-wing extremists.
The surveillance of two West Bank Jewish education institutions whose members are suspected of violence would also be increased.
Furthermore, the defense minister will issue a special order allowing the classification of violent right-wing activists as terrorist organizations and so-called "price tag" acts (a term coined by extremist settlers to describe acts meant as retribution for Palestinian offenses) as acts of terror. The change in the classification of these acts, currently classified as local crime, will allow law enforcement officials to allocate more resources to prevent these types of crime.
It was decided that Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch would be asked to instruct judges not to show perpetrators any leniency.
Police involvement was also to be increased, with more road blocks to be set up in efforts to apprehend vandals.
Aharonovitch was to present these measures to cabinet ministers for final approval.
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