The head of Israel’s Internal Security Agency has reportedly warned of a far-right plot against the military’s top commander in the West Bank.
According to The Times of Israel, the country’s Channel 12 news reported that the Shin Bet Chief, Ronen Bar, expressed his concerns in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and all government ministers.
The letter reportedly said sharp criticism against Major General Yehuda Fox “may create a concrete threat to the general’s life and allow him to be harmed.”
Bar was quoted as writing that the threat “is led by a small number of people, who are extremist and Kahanist,” a reference to followers of the late far-right leader Rabbi Meir Kahane.
#BREAKING UN warns of 'deteriorating human rights situation in West Bank,' calls on Israel to 'end unlawful killings' of Palestinians, settler violence pic.twitter.com/xGVEbC8Au8
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) December 28, 2023
He claimed that the intense criticism of Fox is due to his actions following October 7, which include “the enforcement of administrative orders that see extremist settlers jailed without charge, and the collection of guns that had been distributed to communal security squads without oversight,” the report said.
“The steps that the Central Command chief has led have caused a real escalation in the criticism against him, which is presented as him having Jewish blood on his hands, to the point of deciding on a din rodef against him,” Bar reportedly added, according to the Times.
It explained that this is a reference to “a Jewish religious principle allowing the extrajudicial killing of individuals who pose a danger to others.”
The paper added that “A similar decree was allegedly issued regarding former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in the months before his assassination by a Jewish extremist in 1995.”
Former member of Knesset, Michael Ben Ari, a veteran Kahanist who was one of the founders of Ben Gvir's party, "Jewish Power":
"Our enemy is not Hamas, it's not the rockets, our enemy is the Arabs in Gaza. As long as there are Arabs in Gaza, the State of Israel is under threat" pic.twitter.com/BUjg8BZZYr— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) December 28, 2023
‘Vocal Minority Group’ Responsible
On Tuesday, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi condemned “any persecution or defamation of” Fox.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid also reportedly denounced threats against Fox, saying he was “a brave warrior, patriot, defender of Israel.”
Last week, President Herzog held a meeting with soldiers in the southern West Bank and condemned “a vocal minority group that is causing terrible damage to the settlement movement and the IDF…enough is enough,” the Times reported.
The report added that Netanyahu told ministers at last Sunday’s cabinet meeting that “he had heard about the din rodef proclamation against Fox, condemned it, and that he had ordered that the matter be investigated.”
Kahanist Israel has perverted judaism and is a threat to the origins of and the foundational churches of christianity https://t.co/IoqBqyCCVG
— Usman Asif (@UsmanBaghi) December 25, 2023
Two Jewish settlers, Elisha Yered and Yehiel Indore, were accused of “deliberate or depraved-indifference homicide” in the August 4 shooting of 19-year-old Qusai Maatan, the Middle-East Monitor (MEMO) reports.
Yered, formerly the spokesperson for the far-right Otzma Yehudit MK, Limor Son Har-Melech, is prohibited from communicating with multiple far-right activists, according to the MEMO report.
Rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the discrepancy between sentences issued to Israelis and Palestinians, the report adds.
While Palestinian stone throwers can and do receive up to 20 years in prison — even if they are minors and no damage or injuries have been caused by their actions — Israelis who murder Palestinians are generally released within months, it states.
(PC, MEMO)
