Strock compares IDF, Shin Bet, police chiefs to Russian mercenaries rebelling against Moscow; PM decries criticism but calls for probe into claims of excess force against settlers
26 June 2023
Far-right minister Orit Strock likened the leaders of the military and the security establishment to Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group on Monday for saying that extremist settlers who have attacked Palestinians in recent days were engaged in “terrorism.”
“They issued a message about Jewish nationalist terrorism. Who do you think you are? The Wagner Group?” she said, referring to the Russian mercenaries who attempted a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin at the weekend.
“Who are you to issue such a message under the government’s nose? Are they going to preach to us?” said Strock, who serves as the settlements and national missions minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition.
Following a deadly West Bank terror attack last week, groups of settlers have fired weapons, set fire to vehicles and homes, and ripped up books at a mosque during rampages through several Palestinian towns.
The rampages were branded “nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term” by Israel Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai in a joint statement on Saturday.
Strock said Monday in comments to the Kol BaRama Haredi radio station, cited by Hebrew-language media, that while she was against the actions of the rampaging settlers, “it is a shame and disgrace to call these events nationalist terrorism.”
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