MK’s claim there are ‘no innocents in Jenin’ draws incitement complaint to Knesset Ethics Committee

Head of the Hadash-Ta’al party MK Ayman Odeh files a formal complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee against MK Yitzhak Kroizer of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party for stating last night from the Knesset podium that there are “no innocent civilians or innocent children” in the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin.

Odeh says Kroizer’s comments “do severe harm to basic values of humanity, of human beings as human beings,” and are unacceptable for a member of Knesset to say.

“A sweeping denial of the existence of innocent people, especially children, alongside clear incitement to harm them, legitimizes murder and harm to civilians, and echoes dangerous notions of dehumanization,” says Odeh in his complaint.

He says that comments such as those from Kroizer have influenced Jewish extremists in the West Bank, “the results of which can be seen day and night with the nationalist terror attacks against Palestinians in the occupied territories of 1967.”

Odeh calls on the Knesset Ethics Committee to sanction Kroizer for “incitement against children and innocent people.”

In his speech, Kroizer was defending Israeli security services over an incident this month in which Border Police officers shot and killed a Palestinian couple and their two young children in their car in the West Bank village of Tammun. The officers claim the car sped toward them. An investigation has been launched, although the officers have yet to be questioned.

“I stand behind IDF soldiers in every situation. Even if the collateral damage is children or women — it does not matter to me,” Kroizer said.

“In Jenin, there are no innocent civilians. In Jenin, there are no innocent children. Those who were born in 2006 during the expulsion from Gush Katif [Israel’s unilateral Disengagement from Gaza, which actually took place in 2005] were the Nukhba fighters of 2026 on October 7 [2023]. Therefore, I have no feeling of mercy for my enemies.”