Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to douse both the political fires and violent clashes that raged in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the aftermath of the firebombing of a Jewish home there on Friday.
“The situation in which Jewish homes are set alight in Israel’s capital city is intolerable,” he said, moments before boarding a plane to Bahrain.
Bennett was silent about the violence against Palestinian residents of the neighborhood. There is a long history of attacks against both Palestinian and Jewish residents there, which has left both sides calling for increased security.
The pending eviction of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah due to long-standing real estate disputes has increased tensions among residents, with the international community and the Palestinian Authority accusing Israel of attempting to ethnically cleanse the neighborhood.
Prior to departing for Bahrain, Bennett held security consultations with the Police, the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Service) and Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev (Labor). Israeli security officials fear the violence in Sheikh Jarrah could have a ripple effect on the West Bank and Gaza.
MK Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Religious Zionist Party (RZP) has kept his sights on the absence of an effective police presence in the beleaguered neighborhood. To call for better protection for its Jewish residents, Ben-Gvir on Sunday symbolically opened a make-shift office outside near the home of the Yoshvayev family, whose house was firebombed while they were away. The MK’s tent and folding table were also outside the Palestinian Salem family’s home, which could be slated for demolition next month. On Sunday night, police attempted to take down Ben-Gvir’s tent.
מוחמד חמאדה, דובר חמאס במזרח ירושלים: "מזהירים מפני מעשים מוגזמים אלה, שהם בבחינת משחק במערומי נפץ שיתפצוצו בפרצופה של ישראל. בגלל ירושלים, פלסטין כולה תעלה באש"@JackyHugi https://t.co/6cIoipFMTV
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) February 13, 2022
IN THE KNESSET on Monday, he said that he should have been protected by parliamentary immunity. The legislator charged that police had beaten his parliamentary aides – and when he attempted to intervene, “they also beat me.”
At some point, he fainted and was taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, and was released on Monday morning with a bandage on his head.
“Today this happened to me, but tomorrow it could be any one of you,” Ben-Gvir told Knesset members during a joint meeting of the Knesset House and Interior Committee.
Police said in response that Ben-Gvir had attempted to push police and interfered with their activity.
Bar Lev accused him of attacking the police.
“There has never been a Knesset member in Israel who raised a hand against a police officer,” the minister said. “Immunity is sacred, violence is obscene. Thanks to the police forces operating with determined forces in the sensitive area of Sheikh Jarrah despite the provocations,” he said.
Ben-Gvir retorted by calling Bar Lev the “biggest failure of a minister in the history of Israel.” The Left warned that Ben-Gvir’s presence sparked Jewish-Arab clashes in Sheikh Jarrah while the Right lauded him for taking a noble stand in support of a Jewish family in the neighborhood that they call Shimon HaTzaddik (Simon the Just).
Ben-Gvir was not the only politician on the scene.
JOINT LIST MKs Ofer Cassif and Ahmed Tibi also took part in the clashes on Sunday evening, with video from the scene showing the MKs brawling with right-wing protesters and former Jerusalem deputy-mayor Aryeh King.
Bennett took issue, however, with the actions of opposition politicians from the RZP and from the left-wing Israeli Arab party, The Joint List.
The prime minister accused those politicians of exploiting the situation for their own benefit. “We do not need provocateurs to come and set the area ablaze just for political goals,” Bennett said. “We need neither Ofer Casif, nor Ben-Gvir, nor Tibi to run Jerusalem for us," he said. “We will deal with it and we will bring stability and security for the residents of the city. This is the responsibility of the Government of Israel and nobody else. Israel Police have increased the level of security and it will take care to secure all residents of the city even in sensitive neighborhoods – it is already a process.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) warned Ben-Gvir that his actions were harming the State of Israel, urging him to let security forces do their job and not to “incite violence.” This “is not a game,” he said, “it’s about human life.”
Ben-Gvir said he planned to stay the course. “Until they install proper security measures to Shimon HaTzadik, my office will continue its operations” next to the Yoshvayev home, Ben-Gvir said. In the evening, he requested that a police car be permanently stationed near the Yoshvayev family’s home, but said that so far, this has not happened.
Ben-Gvir said that one proposal which had been made to him, and obviously rejected, was that the Yoshvayev family should leave for a few months until the end of the upcoming Ramadan holiday.
A number of MKs visited Ben-Gvir at his temporary Sheikh Jarrah office, including Likud parliamentarians Shlomo Karhi, Amir Ohana and Yoav Galant.
The heads of the Land of Israel Caucus, MKs Yoav Kish (Likud) and Orit Struck (RZP), informed Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai on Monday that if the security of the Jewish residents of Sheikh Jarrah is not ensured immediately, the caucus will convene in the neighborhood in the coming days.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY officials meanwhile claimed on Monday that Israel was seeking to “seize” properties belonging to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. PA President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the “settler violence” in Sheikh Jarrah and said that the PLO leadership would meet soon to discuss the situation in Jerusalem. Abbas warned that Israel’s actions in the city would have serious repercussions.
Earlier, Abbas phoned Fatmeh Salem, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah who is facing eviction from her family home. “We stand with you and our hearts and minds are with you,” Abbas told the woman. “The occupation will end soon.”
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to halt its measures against Palestinians, especially in Sheikh Jarrah and the village of Silat al-Harthiya, near Jenin, where the IDF demolished the homes of terrorists involved in the murder of yeshiva student Yehuda Dimentman in December 2021.
Shtayyeh denounced the Israeli measures as “war crimes, oppression and ethnic cleansing.” The PLO warned that Israel’s actions and policies would lead to an “explosion” and urged the international community to intervene with Israel to prevent a further escalation.
Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the PA General Authority of Civil Affairs, accused Israel of working to “displace” the residents of Sheikh Jarrah. He said that the Palestinian leadership was conducting intensive contacts with several countries to pressure the Jewish state to “stop all its repressive measures against the Palestinians in east Jerusalem.”
Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Haitham Abu Al Foui denounced the pending Sheikh Jarrah evictions of Palestinian families. “The ongoing unilateral Israeli actions of confiscating Palestinian lands and demolishing homes are illegal practices that set up the occupation and undermine the chances of achieving just and comprehensive peace on the basis of a two-state solution,” Al Foui said according to the Petra News Service.
On Monday, Israel Police and the Shin Bet announced that two suspects had been arrested for torching the home. Eight Molotov cocktails, a sock hat and gloves were seized from the home of one of them. At least 12 suspects were arrested during the riots by police, who used sound grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons among other riot dispersal methods to disperse the crowds. Twenty-one Arab injuries were reported by the Jerusalem Red Crescent on Sunday.
Tensions surrounding planned evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood were one of the reasons Palestinian terrorist groups cited for launching rockets at the capital on Jerusalem Day last year, sparking a nearly two-week-long conflict.
