In a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the violence and chaos between Arab and Jews in recent days is “insufferable.”
“We’ve seen Arab rioters setting synagogues alight, setting cars alight, assaulting police, attacking peaceful innocent civilians. We can’t accept it. It’s anarchy,” he says.
“Nothing can justify an Arab mob assaulting Jews, and nothing can justify a Jewish mob assaulting Arabs.”
“I don’t care if your blood is boiling. So it’s boiling. It’s irrelevant. You can’t take the law into your own hands. You can’t come to an Arab civilian and try to lynch him, just as we can’t see Arab citizens do so to Jewish citizens. This will not stand.”
“This violence is not us,” he says. “We will bring back order and rule to all Israeli cities.”
He says he’ll give full backing and more powers and resources to police to enforce the law and says he is also looking at sending military forces into cities to the extent that the law allows it.
“If need be, we’ll legislate further [to do so],” he says.
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