‘You’re turning the victims into attackers’: Israeli officials slammed for calling settlers ‘terrorists’

The attacks by Israelis “contradict every moral and Jewish value and are nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term.”

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud), IDF chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai on Saturday slammed the recent retaliatory attacks by Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria against Palestinians.

Halevi, Bar, and Shabtai in a joint statement on Saturday said the attacks, which were carried out in response to a spate of deadly terror shootings, constituted “nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term.”

Meanwhile Gallant issued a condemnation of the attacks on Palestinian residents of Umm Safa.

“I strongly condemn the violence perpetrated against residents of the village of Umm Safa, including the burning of houses and vehicles,” he wrote on Twitter.

“This is not our way,” Gallant said.

He added that he has given IDF troops stationed in the area orders “to prevent acts of violence perpetrated by civilians.”

Shmuel Meidad, CEO of Honenu legal aid group, criticized the defense chiefs for their remarks.

“Police Commissioner, IDF Chief of Staff, and Israel Security Agency chief – you failed,” he said. “You are turning the victims into attackers. Your statements now are trying to cover up your failure in the war against the Arab terror which is murdering us.”

In their joint statement, the three officials wrote that the attacks “contradict every moral and Jewish value.” They also claimed that it has the adverse effect of “increasing Palestinian terrorism” as well as the “international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism.”

“It also diverts the security forces from their main mission of operating against Palestinian terrorism,” they wrote.

Herzl HaleviIsraeli settlementsJudea and SamariaKobi ShabtairiotsYoav Gallant