Lawmakers respond to state comptroller’s report on Guardian of the Walls riots

Lawmakers are weighing in on the report by Israel’s state comptroller, which called out failures of the police and Shin Bet amid intercommunal riots in May 2021 during a conflict between the IDF and terror groups in Gaza.

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev accepts the report’s findings but maintains that during his time in office, which began after the riots, he has implemented measures, such as establishing a national guard within the Border Police.

“I am determined that the events of Guardian of the Walls, as we experienced inside the State of Israel, will not occur again,” he writes.

Religious Zionism party chair Bezalel Smotrich says that the report reveals “blindness and denial in reading reality” by security forces, and claims that police ignored extreme nationalism that is “increasingly present in Arab society.”

Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman charges that the report demonstrates a view that “Arab citizens are enemies, or potential enemies that the regime needs,” and that the report ignores “police violence and Jewish racist fascists.”