Settler Councils and MK Ben Gvir Condemn IDF Exercise Simulating Abduction of Arab

By Hamodia Staff

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and regional council chairmen of Yehudah and Shomron denounced an exercise carried out by the Ephraim Brigade of the IDF in which they simulated the abduction by two settlers of an Arab man from the Shomron village of Al-Funduq and the transferring him to Ramat Gil’ad, and Jewish community north of Karnei Shomron, Arutz Sheva reported.

During the exercise, the soldiers acting as the settlers were wearing yellow vests marked as “imitation enemies,” which the settlers decried as portraying them as enemies of the state.

Ben-Gvir said that “the report on the exercise conducted by the Central Command, in the framework of which they simulated the ‘kidnapping of an Arab by settlers,’ is delusional and complete madness.

“At a time when 136 Israeli hostages are being held captive by the Hamas Nazis, the commander orders an exercise centered on demonizing the settlers. The settlers are not kidnapping Arabs. They are not even suspected of planning anything close to that. The opposite is true: Arabs are walking around in the settlements in Judea and Samaria without any fear. The existence of such an exercise constitutes full cooperation in the ‘settler violence’ blood libel.

“I call on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to immediately intervene in the issue and investigate the incident. We will not allow such serious conduct to continue,” he concluded.

Binyamin Regional Governor Yisrael Ganz said, “Whoever, in a time of war in which the settlers are mobilized to the maximum on all fronts, builds such a scenario that has never been seen before, is morally and operationally confused. We have been aware of this confusion for two years. They did not listen to us.”

“I call on the IDF to conduct an investigation into the obviously offensive and non-operational scenario. This confusion tarnishes the name of the settlers and the State of Israel,” he said.

The regional council chairmen in Judea and Samaria, Yossi Dagan, Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, Shlomo Ne’eman, Chairman of the Yesha Regional Council and Mayor of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, and Chairman of the Binyamin Regional Council, Yisrael Gantz, appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant to immediately discharge the person who wrote the exercise carried out by the central command.

“We demand that the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense discharge the person who wrote the exercise at a time like this. Whoever knows how to discharge reserve combat soldiers who recite Tehilim in a mosque in Jenin most definitely knows how to discharge the commander who planned an exercise that not only discredits the Yehudah and Shomron communities, but also endangers lives, since he is wasting ammunition and manpower on a fictitious scenario instead of training for a real scenario.”

In response, an IDF spokesperson said, “During a wide-ranging exercise in the Judea and Samaria Division to improve the readiness of the division and the defense in the area to maintain the security of the residents, over a hundred different scenarios were practiced, including extreme scenarios.”

“The IDF does not rehearse scenarios simulating settlers as the enemy, and the purpose of the labeling in question was to distinguish trainee from trainee, as part of the exercise safety routine. In the current case, it was a mistake to label them thusly and we apologize for that.

“The IDF has a close relationship with the settlements, and it works to protect them around the clock and in cooperation.”