Israeli premier vows ‘zero tolerance’ for Jewish extremists

Israeli Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday “any method is kosher” to deal with far-right Jewish groups and militants, including a harsh interrogation method.

The agency reported that Israeli soldiers fired towards the protesters with rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas – resulting in multiple injuries among the crowd of demonstrators.

Thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday night in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against “incitement and violence”, following attacks by Jewish extremists targeting Palestinians and homosexuals. This follows an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler.

Israel’s security cabinet said in a statement that it views the arson in Duma as a terrorist attack in every respect and instructed that draft legislation on the fight against terrorism be urgently advanced in the Knesset and that it also apply to those who perpetrate terrorism of this sort, meaning terrorism by Jews.

A Palestinian youth died yesterday at a West Bank hospital following a clash with Israeli troops near Ramallah, Palestinian hospital officials said.

More politically embarrassing for the president and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, was the contribution of Shimi Tal, chairman of the ruling Likud party in the central Israeli town of Beer Yaakov, who demanded Mr Rivlin’s arrest and “hospitalisation” for sympathising with the Dawabsheh family.

Israel is clamping down on Jewish extremists, allowing suspects to be put under administrative detention, meaning they can be held without trial for lengthy periods.

Witnesses told Quds Press that a group of Jewish settlers came from one of the Israeli settlements near the village and tried to burn a house down but escaped when they were spotted by villagers.

Netanyahu called it “a despicable hate crime”, and Rivlin warned that social intolerance could spell disaster for Israel.

The firebombing of the family’s home in the occupied West Bank that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha has sparked an worldwide outcry over Israel’s failure to curb violence by hardline settlers. We brought him out and then they said there was another boy inside, but we couldn’t reach the bedroom because of the fire.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports 120 incidents of “settler-related violence” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2015.

Though Palestinians and their supporters are tired about treatment that the Israeli arsonists will get under the justice system, Gilad Erdan, minister of internal security, said on Friday that the case will be given top priority and that all efforts will be exhausted to make sure that the suspects end their lives behind bars.

In a separate interview on Army Radio, Erdan said the state might require suspects to wear electronic ankle-bracelets to track their movements.