Settler who shot attacking Palestinian rioters gets gun back

An Israeli man who shot at a group of Palestinian rioters who were attacking his car — killing one person and injuring a second — got his pistol back from police on Monday, after the deputy defense minister intervened on the man’s behalf, his office said.

Earlier this month, the Israeli civilian drove along Route 60 through the town of Hawara, south of Nablus, on his way to his home in the nearby Itamar settlement in the northern West Bank. Along the road leading through Hawara, the Israeli man encountered a large protest by Palestinians in support of a hunger strike by security prisoners, which has since ended.

As the man drove through the protest, the demonstrators turned violent, surrounding his car and kicking it. The man sped forward to leave, hitting some protesters, but an ambulance driver cut into the Israeli man’s lane, blocking his escape.

His car surrounded and pelted with rocks, the man opened fire toward the demonstrators. His shots killed one protester, 23-year-old Muataz Hussain Tayeh, and injured an Associated Press photographer, Majdi Mohammed, who was taking pictures of the event.

Within seconds, an army jeep pulled up to the scene and dispersed the rioters. The Israeli civilian was taken to a nearby police station for questioning about the incident and his pistol was confiscated in order to perform ballistic tests.

After the incident, the Israeli driver, a father of eight, told Channel 2 news that the Palestinians “almost lynched” him. “Thank God I managed to get out of there… I looked death in the eyes,” he said, speaking with his back turned to the camera in order to keep his identity a secret.

On Monday, the handgun was returned to the Israeli man, after Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan filed a request with police on his behalf, according to the minister’s office.

“The settler from Itamar acted calmly and with determination against a terrorist who threatened his life,” Ben Dahan said in a statement.

“An unequivocal statement needed to be made against terrorists and I am therefore pleased that the Israel Police acted as expected, returning the settler’s gun and determining that the incident was a terrorist act,” the deputy defense minister said.

Ben Dahan, a rabbi and member of the right-wing Jewish Home party’s hard-line Tekuma faction, has served as deputy defense minister since 2015. He is mostly responsible for the management of Israel’s military rule in the West Bank, through the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil Administration.

For many Israeli settlers living in the northern West Bank, the Route 60 highway through Hawara is the most direct way home from Tel Aviv and other locations in central Israel.

Alternative routes would tack on another 30 minutes to their drive, so despite the risks of driving through the Palestinian village, they will continue to use the highway, residents told The Times of Israel earlier this month.

In his capacity as deputy defense minister, Ben Dahan has called for the creation of bypass highways, which would go around Palestinian villages instead of through them. Itamar residents said they support this proposal.

The plan has already been approved by the government, but its implementation has been held up for mostly budgetary reasons.

“The solution to situations like this is the creation of a bypass route that would go around Hawara, which would save lives… Now all that’s left is for the government to fund the paving as quickly as possible,” Ben Dahan said.