Netanyahu: “Zero Tolerance” In Wake of Deadly Arson

YERUSHALAYIM
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaking to the media following an arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Shechem. (FLASH90)
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaking to the media following an arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Shechem. (FLASH90)
The scene of a house in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Shechem, where a Palestinian infant was killed on Friday morning. (FLASH90)
The scene of a house in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Shechem, where a Palestinian infant was killed on Friday morning. (FLASH90)

As tensions spiraled upward after the death of a Palestinian child was blamed on Jewish arsonists, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that his government will show “zero tolerance” for extremists.

Friday’s arson attack on a Palestinian home in Duma village near Shechem that killed an 18-month-old toddler, Ali Dawabsha, and seriously injured his parents and brother, caused an international outcry with condemnations from the United States, the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu vowed a crackdown on what he branded “terrorism” by “criminals in our nation.”

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said that hate crime suspects would from now on be subject to “administrative detention.” The extension to Israelis of “administration detention” — arrest without trial of individuals believed to pose a security risk — is a controversial practice commonly applied to Palestinian terrorist suspects.

“As always, each case of administrative detention will have to be approved by the courts, but by invoking this the minister is taking action consistent with his effort to exact the full measure of the law against these people,” a spokesman for Yaalon said.

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz said he could not recall “anything of this magnitude in recent years, which included entering a home and setting it on fire — it’s clear there will be ramifications.”

In special session on Sunday evening, the cabinet approved the use of “all means necessary” to apprehend the arsonists.

The other members of the Dawabsha family who suffered extensive burns were airlifted to the Tel Hashomer Medical Center where they were reported in critical condition.

In the meantime, the identity of the perpetrators was not known. There was no claim of responsibility, only a graffiti in Hebrew reading “revenge” daubed at the site. This was consistent with past vandalism and other hate crimes by bands of Jewish extremists targeting Arabs and others.

The White House condemned what it called a “vicious” arson attack.

The U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon “strongly” condemned “the murder of a Palestinian child” and called for “the perpetrators of this terrorist act to be promptly brought to justice,” a spokesperson for Ban said, according to AFP.

While right-wing extremists were suspected, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) noted that such an act is a genuine security issue and not an attempt to frame the right wing in Israel.

“This attack is terrorism,” Shaked said, speaking on Israel Radio. “There is no connection between it and the right wing. This is terrorism, terrorism for its own sake, and we should treat it harshly.”

Following his condemnation of the arson attack, President Reuven Rivlin received death threats and accusations of “terrorist” and “traitor.”

Rivlin, who had been part of the right wing of the Likud before becoming president, lamented that “flames have engulfed our country.”

On the day of the arson Rivlin posted a message in both Hebrew and Arabic, saying “More than feeling shame, I feel pain. Pain over the murder of a little baby. Pain that members of my nation chose this way of terror and lost their sense of humanity. Their path is not my path. Their path is not our path. Their path is not the path of the state of Israel and it is not the path of the Jewish people.”

However, Adva Biton, who lost her daughter Adelle, Hy”d, in a terror attack last March, charged that there was a certain double standard in the official reaction to Friday’s incident.

“I don’t recall President Rivlin, whom I have great respect for, visiting my daughter in the hospital after she was struck by a rock. I don’t recall him calling for a public protest when Adele was attacked. Something is wrong here.” Neither, she said, did Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visit her in the hospital.

“I, too, lost a child to hate. But dozens, if not hundreds, of others in Israel have lost children to terror. Let us hear from them too, and get past the ‘liberalism’ that currently exists in which only one side is condemned,” she told Arutz Sheva.

Some of the reactions across the country were violent, including demonstrations and rioting in a number of Palestinian areas.

An Arab prisoner set on fire the paroches in the Sharon Prison synagogue, while shouting “you burned a mosque, we’ll burn synagogues,” according to Arutz Sheva.

Prison guards rushed to put out the fire, and there was only minor damage and no injuries.

A memorial to Chevron terror victim Yossi Shok, Hy”d, was set on fire over the weekend, Israel Police reported.

Shok, a father of five, was killed in a shooting on December 16, 2005, near Beit Haggai, south of Chevron, after the car he was driving was ambushed by Palestinians. The memorial has been set on fire a number of times in the past.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered Palestinian security forces to prevent  any revenge attacks or riots, according to the Arab newspaper Rai al-Youm.

A joint Israeli-Palestinian prayer vigil was held Sunday evening at Gush Etzion junction. Organized by Shorashim/Judur, the event was attended by Rabbi Yaakov Meidan, head of Har Etzion Yeshivah; Rabbi Dov Zinger, head of Makor Haim Yeshivah high school; Rabbi Yaakov Nagen of the Otniel Yeshivah, as well as Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Hawa and Ali Abu Awwad.

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