Opposition heads back government on Jenin raid but demand retreat on judicial blitz

Opposition lawmakers gave their backing to the Israel Defense Forces operation in the West Bank city of Jenin Monday, but lashed the government for its resumed push to remake the judicial system.

Speaking at a weekly meeting of his Yesh Atid faction, opposition leader Yair Lapid said that he supported the security forces and asked the international community to consider this year’s 28 terror victims “before denouncing Israel” for its campaign against terror emanating from Jenin.

However, he said the coalition should have halted the advancement of a bill to curtail judicial review of government decisions, which would have facilitated the anti-overhaul activists stopping their protests while Israeli troops were still carrying out the operation.

“What should have happened today was for the government to stop the legislation. Then there would be space to end the demonstration at Ben Gurion Airport. This is what the protest organizers said, too,” said Lapid, reiterating that he would not be calling for a halt to the large protest planned at the airport.

“Protesters have a full right to demonstrate in a democratic country. As long as we are a democratic country,” he said.

Hours earlier, the Brothers in Arms reservist group earlier called on the coalition to stop the advancement of the “reasonableness” bill, saying it would have no choice but to protest if the Knesset discussions on the legislation continued, even against the backdrop of the military operation.

Lapid also noted that he has a meeting set next week to receive a security update from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mandated by law.

National Unity party leader Benny Gantz backed the Jenin operation, and warned the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups against getting involved, saying, “Whoever threatens Israeli citizens will end up in prison or a grave.”

“We all back the security forces and IDF, trust them to carry out the mission, and pray that they come home in peace,” he said. “We, as a responsible opposition, back the government in its fight against terror.”

The Jenin operation was launched early Monday morning, in response to a series of deadly terror attacks carried out by Palestinians from the area.

The IDF said the operation began with a series of airstrikes against multiple “terror infrastructure” targets in the city, including a joint war room shared by various armed groups in the city.

Palestinian health officials said eight people were killed and at least 27 others were wounded, including seven listed in serious condition, during the strikes and in clashes with Israeli forces, which continued into the night.

Like Lapid, though, Gantz demanded a halt to the judicial overhaul, accusing Netanyahu of pushing the legislation forward, while neglecting more pressing issues.

“Our unity and strength are essential for our existence. Netanyahu needs to deal with our enormous challenges and halt the legislation,” Gantz said. “Instead of dealing with dismantling democracy and his regime coup, Netanyahu needs to stop, deal with the big challenges, and not surrender to petty politics.”

Labor party leader Merav Michaeli blamed Netanyahu’s past governments for enabling lawlessness in Jenin.

The security situation in Jenin is “a result of strengthening Hamas and weakening the Palestinian Authority, by past Netanyahu governments,” Michaeli said at the opening of her faction meeting.

This “longtime policy is exploding in our faces,” she added.

“Real security can be achieved only through a diplomatic deal,” she said, calling for a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Michaeli charged that the coalition is “taking advantage of the operation” to push a bill to restrict judicial review over the “reasonableness” of elected officials’ decisions.

“I am not backing up the government, I am sending strength to the IDF and to security forces,” she said.

Hadash-Ta’al chair MK Ayman Odeh said the government’s ongoing Jenin operation is part of a plan to annex parts of the West Bank.

“The goal is the annexation of Area C,” Odeh said at the outset of his Knesset faction meeting, referring to Israeli-controlled areas under the Oslo Accords.

“The Palestinian nation will continue to struggle until a nation is formed on 1967 lines, alongside the State of Israel,” he said.

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman backed the operation, but said it “wasn’t enough.

“Without dealing with the leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip who took responsibility for the series of terror attacks that we’ve recently seen,” Liberman said, “just dealing with Jenin, it doesn’t make sense. We must go back to targeted killings.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party canceled its faction meeting due to the Jenin operation.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party opened its party meeting with prayers for success in Jenin.

As negotiations between the coalition and opposition on a broadly agreed-upon judicial reform have collapsed, the fight over the overhaul has heated up once more in recent days as the government gears up to unilaterally push through parts of the legislation.

Vowing to move ahead with a day of planned protests, despite the Jenin operation, anti-government demonstrators blocked access to the Haifa port on Monday morning and gathered at Ben Gurion Airport in the afternoon.

The protests are ramping up, as the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has sought to advance a bill barring courts from striking down government decisions via a “reasonableness” test. Coalition figures have vowed to pass such legislation before the Knesset’s summer recess at the end of the month.

Protest organizers had said they would cancel Monday’s events if the committee postponed its session on Monday, but the Knesset meeting went ahead as scheduled.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been high across the West Bank for the past year and a half, with the military carrying out near-nightly raids, amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.

Since the beginning of this year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 24 people.

According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 143 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that time — most of them during clashes with security forces or while carrying out attacks, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances.

The northern West Bank, and especially the city of Jenin and its environs, has long been considered by the IDF as a hotbed of terrorism. According to the IDF, since last year, some 50 shooting attacks were carried out by residents of the area, and 19 wanted Palestinians escaped to Jenin to seek refuge there from Israeli forces.