MK Son Har-Melech, of Ben-Gvir’s party, defended the Jewish assailants, claiming that the assaulted Arab women in the vehicle could have been spies against the West Bank settlers
Haaretz
Israeli far-right lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech justified an incident that occurred on Friday in the West Bank, in which Jewish settlers violently attacked Arab Israeli women who had accidentally entered their outpost.
Four Bedouin women and a two-year-old were traveling from the southern Israeli city of Rahat to Nablus in the West Bank when they mistakenly entered Givat Ronen, a settlement three miles south of the Palestinian city.
Settlers threw stones and set fire to the vehicle, despite the women attempting to explain to them that they are Israeli citizens who just made a wrong turn. The women were injured in the violent incident and were taken to a local hospital before being released.
On Sunday, MK Son Har-Melech, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, spoke about the incident at the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, where she seemed to justify the attack.
Son Har-Melech told opposition lawmaker Gilad Kariv that he is not familiar with the details of the incident since his information is based on media reports, leading Kariv to say he received his information from an Israeli family’s testimony.
‘This isn’t an Israeli family,’ the far-right lawmaker said in response, adding that threats are easy to carry out in the West Bank.
‘Think about it. When a vehicle enters without an Israeli license plate, and we know the dangers and threats, then we cannot compromise,’ Son Har-Melech said, adding that ‘an incident like this could be espionage or intelligence-gathering.’
Nufa, one of the women who mistakenly entered Givat Ronen, said they were instructed by the settlers to get out of the car: ‘We told them we were Israeli citizens, we weren’t doing anything, just got confused because of Waze, but they didn’t even hear us. They were all armed, and there were a lot of them.’
Nufa said one of the settlers put his gun to the toddler’s head, forcing them to leave the car and flee. According to her, they called the police, but the ones who saved them were Israeli soldiers. ‘The baby started crying, and she’s traumatized,’ she said.
Israel Police say no one has been arrested or investigated in connection to the violent incident.