Netanyahu urges harsher punishments for stone-throwers
Prime minister, along with public security minister, blames Abbas for inciting riots as violence flares again
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed lawmakers Monday to advance legislation to stiffen punishments for stone-throwing rioters in Jerusalem as unrest again broke out in the capital’s eastern neighborhoods.
Netanyahu issued the directive in a meeting with defense, senior security and law enforcement officials, where representatives from the state prosecutor’s office said they had already “called for detention and stiffer punishments for stone-throwers including criteria for the possible imposition of economic sanctions on the parents of minors who throw stones,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The call came hours before Palestinian rioters threw stones and Molotov cocktails in the flashpoint Silwan, Ras al-Amud and Issawiya neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
The neighborhoods have seen several days running of clashes with police amid spiraling tensions in the capital, as police have bolstered forces to quell the violence and officials have vowed a crackdown on the rioters.
The prime minister also reassured officials that there are no plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, despite calls by right-wing politicians to open up the compound for Jews to pray.
Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch joined Netanyahu in placing the blame for the recent uptick in violence on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Jerusalem is being riled up by the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamic Movement,” he said at a Knesset Interior Committee meeting. “Incitement and propaganda is all over the social networks, television, in the newspapers, and is all focused on causing disorder in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount.”
East Jerusalem has seen near-daily incidents of stone-throwing, rioting and other acts of violence for much of the past month, including a terrorist attack last Wednesday in which a Palestinian man plowed his car into a crowd of people near a light rail station, killing two people, one of them a three-month-old girl.
Tensions have been high since June, when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank. Jewish extremists retaliated by kidnapping and killing a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem, sparking riots. The kidnappings set off a series of events that led to the 50-day Gaza war.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
