Soldier jailed for taunting activists says he wasn’t trained to handle ‘anarchists’

The Ynet news site publishes details from what it says is the testimony of the soldier who has been sent to 10 days in military prison for a confrontation with left-wing activists.

The soldier on Friday confronted an activist in Hebron and boasted about far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, who is set to become Israel’s next national security minister — an expanded public security minister role.

“Ben Gvir is going to sort things out in this place,” the soldier said. “That’s it, you guys have lost … the fun is over.” He also said that “I am the law.”

According to Ynet, in his testimony to military investigators the soldier said he had not been trained to deal with Israeli citizens. “In my training, I dealt with how to fight. There was no detailed discussion of how to confront anarchists.”

He noted that he had had little sleep prior to the incident and “this along with the pressure affected my reaction.”

He also asserted that his mental state was “very bad” as “my face is all around the country” over the incident.