Israelis in Jerusalem attended a funeral procession for an Israeli killed in a car crash on Friday (July 1) caused by Palestinian gunfire near the Jewish settlement of Ottniel in the West Bank and injured three members of his family.
Since October, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens in a wave of street attacks, mostly stabbings. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests.
During the Israeli ministers’ weekly meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is using new decisive measures to stop the attacks.
“We are in the midst of an ongoing fight against terror, which has seen ups and downs. We use many different means, including new decisive measures which haven’t been used before,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli authorities imposed closure on the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday (July 2) after the deadly attack on Friday and said they will reduce monthly transfers of tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinians in what aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a response to the killing of two Israelis in Palestinian attacks in the occupied West Bank this week.
On Sunday (July 3) early morning, Israeli forces entered Hebron and arrested six people, including the sister of the Palestinian assailant that killed a 13-year-old girl in her house in Hebron’s Kiryat Arba settlement.
Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks.
Israel’s Minister of Internal Security accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was “sabotaging” Israeli police work.
But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, on the ‘Meet The Press’ TV show on Israel’s Channel 2 were particularly biting.
“Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate. It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts,” said Erdan.
Facebook did not respond directly to Erdan’s criticism, but said in a statement that it conferred closely with Israel: “We work regularly with safety organisations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook. There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform,” the statement said.
Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.
Advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Husam Zumlot, said that he hopes that Facebook continues being the space for people to express their views within limits.
“Our struggle is through our peaceful demonstrations and peacefully resisting this occupation. Our struggle is to boycott and to sanction illegality. Facebook will not affect us but I hope that this Israeli piracy is not going to affect and to terrorize the international community and major communication tools like Facebook into submission and I hope it will continue being a platform for people to communicate and to express their views, of course within the limits of what is permitted and allowed,” Zumlot said.
Tensions over Jewish access to a contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and by Jews as Temple Mount, have also fueled the violence.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
