Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the government of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to form a unit that has the sole responsibility of dealing with “Jewish Terrorism”, and that this unit will be countering attacks carried out by extremist settlers.Haaretz added that Netanyahu held a meeting with a ministerial panel, the was formed back in December of last year, to fight Jewish terrorism.
The unit was formed after extremist Israeli settlers attacked an Israeli military base in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
It also stated that the Police will be appointing a commander, instead of a superintendent, to head the army in the West Bank, and will be increasing the number of officers operating in the unit in addition to investing more technological resources, so that the unit will only be in charge of countering Jewish terrorism.
The inauguration was conducted Wednesday with the participation of Israel’s Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Abranovitch, and Israeli Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino.
Abranovitch said that Israel will not give anybody the chance to take advantage of the situation is Israel during the period that precedes next January’s general elections in the country.
Israel started considering the formation of the new unit after extremist settlers infiltrated, last December, into an Israeli military base in the northern part of the West Bank, damaged military vehicles, burnt car ties and even hurled stones at Col. Ron Kahana, a brigade commander, mildly injuring him. The army and the police clashed with the settlers and apprehended one of them.
Back then, the settlers also blocked Route 55, near the base, and hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles.
Following an investigation into the attack, the Israeli Police filed charges against five extremist settlers, accusing them of collecting information about the military base in addition to conspiring to attack the base, Haaretz said. The extremists will be appearing before an Israeli court sometime next week.
