Hundreds Protest Against Netanyahu, Demanding Deportation of Terrorists’ Families
Jerusalem (TPS) – Hundreds of Israelis attended a demonstration organized by the Judea and Samaria (Yesha) Council outside the weekly cabinet meeting this morning. The demonstrators protested the government’s failure to stop the ongoing wave of terror, whose most recent victim, Tuvia Yanai Weissman, was murdered on Thursday at a supermarket in the Shaar Binyamin Industrial Zone.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivering a speech at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, hundreds of protesters called on him to take decisive action against terrorism and Palestinian incitement, which they claim is propagated by the official Palestinian Authority (PA) television channel.
“We call on the government to stop the terror raging throughout Israel,” said Avi Roeh, head of the Yesha Council, during the demonstration. “The situation in which we are murdered inside communities and in shopping centers cannot continue. The moral thing to do is to deport the terrorists’ families, and as long as this is not done, we will come and protest.”
“During the investigation into Dafna Meir’s murder, the young terrorist told security forces: ‘I was watching PA television and decided to go out and kill a Jew,’” added Roeh, noting the killing last month of a mother of six in the community of Otniel.
The protest was attended by Deputy Minister of Regional Cooperation Ayoob Kara from the Likud party, MKs Shuli Muallem and Moti Yogev of the Jewish Home party, heads of local councils, rabbis, members of the public, and also by the parents of Shlomit Krigman who was murdered in the community of Beit Horon on January 25.
“Shlomit bridged the gaps between different Israeli factions; that was her life,” said Krigman’s parents Naama and Tsahi. “Unfortunately, she was taken from us. Her murder was merciless and precise, because the murderers knew exactly what they were doing. They stabbed her in three different areas so that she had no way to recover.”
“We have no doubt that the incitement and Facebook videos are responsible for that,” they added. “While our children watch videos about Mentos and Cola, they learn how to kill Jews in Israel. Our ministers and MKs have the power to stop the incitement.”
“Today we call to stop incitement, demolish terrorists’ homes and deport them and their families,” said MK Shuli Muallem during the demonstration. “We need to step up the war on terror. Israel knows how to reach the PA’s communications infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, inside the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu backed IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who came under attack from ring-wing figures last week after saying that soldiers “should not empty their weapon’s magazine on 13-year-old girls with scissors.”
“The debate over the chief of staff’s remarks is pointless. What he said was obvious, and in any case, the IDF and the security forces already operate in this manner,” said Netanyahu. “Everything said after that was said either out of misunderstanding or a desire to score political points. Both are unacceptable. We need to set this matter aside and move on, which is exactly what we will do in this meeting.”