Far-right minister says ‘zero legitimacy’ for mob overrunning IDF bases

Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer of the Religious Zionism party comes out against the far-right activists who broke into a military base where soldiers detained on suspicion of abusing a Palestinian detainee were taken for questioning.

“There is zero legitimacy to what happened at the IDF bases yesterday,” Sofer tells Army Radio. “And there need to be arrests.”

Asked about the participation of right-wing ministers and MKs in the events, including from his own party, Sofer says he believes that the politicians underestimated how far the protests would go.

“This needs to be a lesson as to how careful we need to be at a time like this, how things can get out of control,” he says, saying that politicians need to take responsibility.

Sofer also criticizes the Military Police for the way they handled the arrest of the nine Israel Defense Forces soldiers suspected of the serious abuse of a Palestinian terror detainee at the Sde Teiman military facility in southern Israel, saying they should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.