Smotrich: Don’t ‘collectively punish settlers,’ settlers must leave response to terror to IDF

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urges against “collective punishment” for settlers, after Jewish rioters rampaged in several Palestinian towns in apparent reprisal for a deadly terror attack last week.

“It is forbidden to collectively punish settlers, who seek security,” Smotrich says at the outset of his Religious Zionism party’s Knesset faction meeting.

Pushing for increased security for Jewish communities in the West Bank, he says “settlers should not have to feel like ducks at a shooting range. Parents should not go out with their children for a routine day and end it with shattered glass, at best, or God forbid, with injuries or worse, at worst.”

“But it is important to note that the army must focus on the uncompromising struggle against terrorism and take a tough hand against the Arab riots, and settlers must leave the work to the IDF and the defense establishment,” he adds.

He further clarified that “I am not confusing my brother with my enemies,” saying that it’s possible to condemn Jews “taking the law into their own hands” against Palestinians without losing sight of moral support for “brothers.”

Smotrich says that he stands behind his party’s minister Orit Strock, who earlier in the day likened security establishment heads to Russian paramilitary organization the Wagner Group.

“Minister Strock clarified her remarks immediately. She apologized,” Smotrich said. “Everyone makes mistakes.”