Report: Police ID 20 rioters who broke into IDF bases, but isn’t investigating them

Senior cops said to oppose prosecuting right-wing activists and MKs who stormed bases in July in response to detention of soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian inmate

Israeli soldiers and police clash with far-right protesters who broke into the Beit Lid army base over the detention for questioning of military reservists suspected of abusing Palestinian terrorist detainees, in Kfar Yona, July 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv/AFP)
Israeli soldiers and police clash with far-right protesters who broke into the Beit Lid army base over the detention for questioning of military reservists suspected of abusing Palestinian terrorist detainees, in Kfar Yona, July 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv/AFP)

Police have definitively identified some 20 people — including Knesset members — who broke into IDF bases in July, but have not interrogated any of them in connection to the incidents, as senior officers oppose the investigation, Haaretz reported on Sunday.

The suspects are nevertheless expected to be called in for questioning soon, the report stated, but due to the opposition of several senior law enforcement officials, it is unlikely that any indictments will be filed against them.

Dozens of activists broke into the Sde Teiman military base on July 29, after military police arrived at the site to detain 10 reservist soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian security prisoner held at the base’s detention center.

Around 1,200 activists turned up a short while later at the Beit Lid military base, where the 10 reservist soldiers had been brought for a remand hearing at a military court.

According to Haaretz, Yigal Ben-Shalom, then-head of the police’s investigation and intelligence division, said in a meeting several months ago of senior police officials that it was the police’s duty to investigate the break-ins.

In response, Moshe Pinchi, then-security affairs secretary to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, reportedly bristled, asking if they’d also investigate left-wing protesters in Tel Aviv who, he asserted, broke into the Israel Defense Forces headquarters, referring to weekly demonstrations there against the government and in favor of a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Israelis protest against the detention of Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian detainee, outside a military court at the Beit Lid base in central Israel, July 30, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The police ultimately decided to open an investigation, together with the IDF Military Police, into the ultranationalist riots.

Senior police officials, however, reportedly still oppose the investigation, and one such official told the newspaper that there is little chance any of those identified in the footage will be indicted.

Through reviewing footage of the break-ins, officers from the police’s anti-fraud and intelligence units have managed to definitively identify more than 20 participants, among them lawmakers, Haaretz reported.

Among those who entered the Sde Teiman base without authorization were MK Nissim Vaturi of the Likud party, MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, and National Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit. The three have yet to be questioned, Haaretz reported, although police have been granted permission to do so.

The IDF, meanwhile, is dissatisfied with the police’s management of the investigation, and has privately criticized it, the report said.

At the time of the riots, the military harshly condemned the break-ins, with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi calling the Beit Lid break-in a “grave incident that seriously harms Israeli democracy and plays into the hands of our enemy,” and calling on the police to act “immediately against those breaking the law.”

Halevi also called on “all elected officials to refrain from irresponsible statements that drag the IDF into the political arena.”

MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) pictured after breaking into the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention center, July 29, 2024. (X screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Sukkot argued to the Knesset’s Ethics Committee last week that the law granting MKs partial immunity should be amended to explicitly permit their entrance to any place at any time, according to a report in the Israel Hayom daily. Separately, the Knesset advanced a bill earlier this month that would make it harder to open a criminal investigation into an MK.

Also among those identified as having broken into the Beit Lid base in July is a right-wing activist named Eyal Lahiani, who was arrested last month after he tried to disrupt a hostage-deal demonstration in front of the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv and started brawling with protesters, according to Haaretz.

Police questioned Lahiani about the incident at the Kirya, the newspaper reported, but refrained from asking him about the Beit Lid break-in, despite having already identified him as one of the participants. The police declined to comment on this report, saying only that Lahiani was questioned, as was the protester.

In response to the report, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that the investigation into the riots is ongoing, and thus the military cannot get into the details of the matter. The police only said that the riots were under investigation.

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