Israeli soldiers in an armored personnel carrier head towards the southern border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 8, 2023, in Sderot, Israel. (Amir Levy, Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Israel’s defense minister accused far-right counterparts in government of undermining the nation’s war effort by encouraging protests against the arrest of soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner.
Yoav Gallant demanded immediate action against those who publicly supported the demonstrators — including fellow cabinet members — after the army diverted two regiments following unrest at two facilities for detainees related to the war in Gaza. Protesters surged through the gates of the jails on Monday, scuffling with guards and demanding the release of nine accused soldiers.
“Last night’s events constitute a grave blow to national security,” Gallant said in an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who didn’t immediately respond.
The uproar came as Israel weighs a retaliation to a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed a dozen young people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, an incident that’s sparked renewed fears of a full-blown conflict with the powerful Hezbollah group. The war against Hamas is approaching its 10th month, stretching military resources, with little sign of an imminent cease-fire.
Support for the demonstrators came not only from ultra-nationalist ministers like Itamar Ben Gvir, but from legislators of Netanyahu’s Likud party, a sign of Israel’s growing move to the right. That shift has been especially pronounced since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants, which left 1,200 people dead and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition depends on support from far-right parties, condemned the protest but notably without great vigor. Some Likud colleagues accused the army of “appeasing those who hate us” by arresting the soldiers accused of abuse.
Intolerable conditions
The raid by military police on Sde Teiman, a desert jail for Palestinians captured during the Oct. 7 incursion and subsequent Gaza offensive, was the most significant intervention by Israeli authorities at a site where human-rights groups have alleged intolerable conditions.
The army said the soldiers, all of them reservists, were accused of “serious mistreatment” of a detainee. Israeli media said that included sexual abuse, reports the army neither confirmed nor denied.
The Oct. 7 attack has traumatized Israelis, with attention focused on the extent of the slaughter and accusations of cruelty by the attackers that day, including the killing of children in front of parents and burning captives alive.
The idea that Israeli soldiers are also being abusive to Palestinians — or that Israel’s war in Gaza has killed too many civilians — has gained little traction within the country except on the far left. That contrasts with the wider world, where pro-Palestinian protests have been a fixture on the streets of cities like London and in U.S. colleges for several months.
Still, Israel’s military and other authorities were shocked to see people trying to stop police from doing their jobs. Protesters went both to Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid facility, which will serve as the courthouse for the detainees.
Gallant described the deployment of troops at Beit Lid, the attendance of the top general and the atmosphere of incitement against the military as drains on wartime operations.
Ben Gvir, one of those Gallant accused in his letter to Netanyahu, responded with demands the prime minister investigate the defense chief over events leading up to the Gaza war, including calls by anti-government demonstrators for military reservists not to attend routine training prior to Oct. 7.
Some others said the prison break-ins and high-level support for demonstrators are signs of national decline.
Red lines
“All the red lines were crossed today,” said Yair Lapid, the centrist head of the opposition. “This is a notice to the State of Israel that they are done with democracy, done with the rule of law. They are a dangerous fascist insurrection that is an existential danger.”
He called the actions a boon to Israel’s enemies, namely Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.
Yuli Edelstein, a senior Likud lawmaker and head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation, siding publicly with the demonstrators rather than the army.
The military’s personnel chief, who was at the closed-door session, acknowledged that “mistakes were made during the military police’s arrest of the soldiers yesterday, and such events will not recur,” Edelstein said in a statement.
The suspects are due to face a military court hearing.
The war against Hamas has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, who don’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel says it has killed 14,000 Hamas soldiers.
Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union.
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