Settler violence sparks disputes within Bennett’s government
Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev instigated an argument within the coalition over settler violence, and whether it is an expanding phenomenon or just marginal incidents.
Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev triggered a major uproar this week, with members of the coalition and even of the Cabinet joining forces with the opposition in a series of scathing attacks against him. The furor was instigated by a Dec. 13 meeting he had with US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, during her visit to Israel. He followed up this meeting by tweeting, “She asked, among other things, about settler violence, how tensions in the region can be reduced and how we can help strengthen the Palestinian Authority.”
It was a brief tweet, but it inevitably aroused the wrath of major figures in the settler movement, not to mention the political right. They protested the broad generalizations he allegedly made about an entire sector of the population.
As a result of this tweet and the responses it elicited, the media spent the rest of the week focusing on the term “settler violence” against the Palestinian population of the West Bank. The right claims that such violence is marginal, arguing it does not compare to the many acts of violence committed by Palestinians. Just yesterday, on Dec. 16, an Israeli from the Shavei Shomron settlement was killed and two others were injured in a shooting attack on the illegal outpost of Homesh in the West Bank.
Even coalition partners on the right were infuriated by Bar Lev’s tweet. It led to a Twitter war between Bar Lev and Cabinet members from Yamina and the New Hope party. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) responded almost immediately, writing, “You’re confused. The truly shocking violence is the many dozens of cases of rocks and Molotov cocktails being thrown at Jews just about every day.” Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahane, also of Yamina, wrote, “It is sad to see that someone with years of experience in security and defense accepts a false narrative, especially one as distorted as this.” Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel of the New Hope party followed suit, telling the news site Ynet that Bar Lev’s remarks cast an “eclipse [on the truth].”
