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Photos:
Israeli soldiers and police clash with right wing protesters, after they broke into the Beit Lid army base on July 29, 2024 in Kfar Yona. (Oren Ziv / AFP) Published by The Times of Israel

Protesters try to break through the main gate of the Beit Lid army base, on Monday. Credit: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv. Published by Haaretz
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By SAM SOKOL for The Times of Israel
30 July 2024, 6:22 pm
Updated at 6:38 pm

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition turned on each other during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, hurling insults and recriminations over the previous day’s break-ins at two IDF bases by far-right activists and MKs outraged over the arrest of soldiers suspected of severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.

According to leaks to Hebrew media, Netanyahu warned ministers that “we do not break into bases” while also railing against “selective enforcement” and comparing the break-ins to highway blockages by anti-government protesters.

In response, Social Equality Minister May Golan (Likud) declared that the protesters “came to support the soldiers because the people can’t accept that heroic fighters who have been risking their lives for nine months are being arrested,” national broadcaster Kan reported. This prompted Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) to condemn Netanyahu’s comparison and insist that the far-right demonstrators cannot be allowed to “endanger the IDF like that.”

The soldiers were arrested by masked military policemen during a raid on the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel. After the arrests, a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held.

Among the lawmakers who participated in the protests were Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu and MKs Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech from the Otzma Yehudit party, Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, and MKs Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also weighed in at the cabinet meeting, insisting there was no comparison between anti-government demonstrators and those who broke into the bases, drawing Golan’s ire and allegations of demagoguery. Hitting back, Chikli asked if Golan was representing the far-right Otzma Yehudit party rather than Likud.

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition turned on each other during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, hurling insults and recriminations over the previous day’s break-ins at two IDF bases by far-right activists and MKs outraged over the arrest of soldiers suspected of severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.

According to leaks to Hebrew media, Netanyahu warned ministers that “we do not break into bases” while also railing against “selective enforcement” and comparing the break-ins to highway blockages by anti-government protesters.

In response, Social Equality Minister May Golan (Likud) declared that the protesters “came to support the soldiers because the people can’t accept that heroic fighters who have been risking their lives for nine months are being arrested,” national broadcaster Kan reported. This prompted Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) to condemn Netanyahu’s comparison and insist that the far-right demonstrators cannot be allowed to “endanger the IDF like that.”

The soldiers were arrested by masked military policemen during a raid on the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel. After the arrests, a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held.

Among the lawmakers who participated in the protests were Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu and MKs Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech from the Otzma Yehudit party, Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, and MKs Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also weighed in at the cabinet meeting, insisting there was no comparison between anti-government demonstrators and those who broke into the bases, drawing Golan’s ire and allegations of demagoguery. Hitting back, Chikli asked if Golan was representing the far-right Otzma Yehudit party rather than Likud.

Chikli then condemned Ben Gvir, saying that “there are those who support the mob and there are those who do not.”

“Those who understand the army know that this is prohibited, unlike [people like] Ben Gvir who did not serve in the army who say it is fine,” he charged.

Ben Gvir was not accepted for compulsory service in the IDF because of his far-right activism, and has previously been convicted for incitement to violence and supporting a domestic Jewish terror group.

As members of his party took part in Monday’s demonstrations, Ben Gvir released a video appeal to IDF Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi “to take her hands off” the soldiers.

Recent reports have alleged widespread abuse of prisoners at the Sde Teiman facility, including extreme use of physical restraints, beatings, neglect of medical problems, arbitrary punishments and more.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu told the High Court that Sde Teiman should only be used for short-term detention and questioning of Palestinian security detainees caught in Gaza.

Public ministerial censure
Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer of Religious Zionism asserted that the riots had no legitimacy and that arrests should be made.

Speaking with Army Radio, he said the scenes that played out at the bases “looked like a third-world country” and that “there are things we cannot afford to happen.”

Interior Minister Arbel sounded a similar note, releasing a public appeal to pull back from “the abyss” before it is too late.

“We will not remain silent in the face of the danger of internal breakdown at the hands of extremist elements,” Arbel wrote in a letter co-signed by MKs Eli Dallal (Likud), Hili Tropper (National Unity), Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism), Meirav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid), Efrat Reiten (Labor) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu).

“We will not stand by in the face of silence and certainly in the face of the [expressions] of irresponsible leaders, who are pushing us to the brink of the abyss,” they wrote, calling on “all public leaders to stop tearing us apart from the inside.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was also critical of the far-right attacks on the military, demanding on Tuesday that Netanyahu launch an investigation to determine whether Ben Gvir had intervened to prevent or delay police from acting to stop the riots.

In response, Ben Gvir dismissed the allegations and called on the prime minister to probe, and then fire, Gallant over unfounded allegations that he, among other things, may have had advanced warning of Hamas’s October 7 attack and intentionally refrained from bolstering the IDF’s presence on the Gaza border.

Convening the Knesset
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to convene a special plenum debate during the legislative recess to discuss the attacks, stating that “we are not on the brink of an abyss, we are in the abyss.”

According to Lapid, “the participation of members of the Knesset and ministers in the invasion of violent militias into IDF bases constitutes a crossing of a red line that Israeli democracy has never known” and Monday’s events were “not another demonstration of one political camp or another” but rather “a sharp threat to Israel’s image as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday morning, Brig. Gen. Yoram Knafo, the chief of staff at the IDF Personnel Directorate, told lawmakers that mistakes were made during the arrests at Sde Teiman and would not recur, according to committee chair Yuli Edelstein.

According to Lapid, “the participation of members of the Knesset and ministers in the invasion of violent militias into IDF bases constitutes a crossing of a red line that Israeli democracy has never known” and Monday’s events were “not another demonstration of one political camp or another” but rather “a sharp threat to Israel’s image as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday morning, Brig. Gen. Yoram Knafo, the chief of staff at the IDF Personnel Directorate, told lawmakers that mistakes were made during the arrests at Sde Teiman and would not recur, according to committee chair Yuli Edelstein.

“This morning we held an urgent discussion on the subject of the arrest of the fighters and the conduct of the Military Advocate General and the military police,” Edelstein said in a statement on the closed-door meeting.

“Unfortunately, the Military Advocate General chose or was instructed not to come to the committee. I am announcing right now that we will hold another hearing in which she will be required to appear before the committee and provide adequate answers regarding investigative policy.”

However, “I am happy that the head of the Personnel Directorate concluded quickly that the army’s conduct on this issue was not correct and similar cases will not happen again,” he added.

Herzog weighs in
Addressing the Galilee conference in Acre on Tuesday afternoon, President Isaac Herzog denounced the mob’s attack on the two army bases as “a serious, dangerous, illegal and irresponsible act.”

But while he came out against the protesters he also raised questions about the manner in which the arrests of the soldiers which sparked the demonstrations were carried out.

“I believe that an immediate, in-depth, sensitive and responsible investigation is required of the manner in which the soldiers were detained for questioning yesterday,” he said.

“This investigation has nothing to do with and must not have anything to do with the very necessity and authority to carefully investigate suspicions of serious acts.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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Senior Police Officers on Riots at IDF Bases: 'The Clear Policy Was to Turn a Blind Eye'; 'Ben-Gvir Didn't Have to Say a Word'

Top police officers criticized the conduct of Israel's police force in response to Monday's riots at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid, allowing protesters to break in to the bases. 'The police is brankrupt, there is no command,' a senior office said

by Josh Breiner for Haaretz
Jul 30, 2024 7:29 pm IDT

Senior police officers criticized on Tuesday the police's conduct when demonstrators broke into IDF bases at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid on Monday. "It is sad to say, but the mood in the police is clear, [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir didn't have to say a word," a senior police officer said. Criticism was also leveled at acting Police Commissioner Avshalom Peled, who sources say did not act as necessary to control the incident.

"The police and district command ignored the events at Beit Lid. There was no shortage of forces, there was a shortage of clear orders and instructions," emphasized one senior officer. A police source admitted that some rioters at Sde Teiman were identified in real time and were known to the police from past demonstrations by right-wing activists. The police, however, have no plans to arrest the rioters at this time.

On Tuesday morning, the police tried to rebuff some of the criticism from the IDF and the public about the conduct of its officers, who failed to prevent the break-ins to the army bases or make any arrests. The police said the forces' conduct at the two scenes was correct, and in its defense, a senior police officer said it is the army that is responsible for defending IDF bases. Police forces only arrived to assist.

Responding to the fact no rioters were arrested at either scene, the police said the army had photographed those who broke into the bases, and will refer to the police. According to a senior police officer, "so far no inquiry has been made on their [the IDF's] part."

A preliminary police investigation into the incidents indicates that, at Sde Teiman, the removal of the protesters took a great deal longer than at Beit Lid because forces were unprepared for the riot and needed time to arrive after the army called them. Police were also asked to assist military forces at Beit Lid, where at least 100 police officers had been deployed earlier after right-wing activists were summoned to the base. Despite the advanced warning, many protesters were able to break into the base.

"There were preparations, but ultimately only a few dozen were able to enter via a courtside gate, which was the jurisdiction of the army," claimed a senior police officer. "We can't deploy 360 degrees around every base." He said the police advocated for communicating with the protesters. "It should be kept in mind that, ultimately, these are mostly armed soldiers, some of whom were masked. We didn't want to use physical force that would cause the incident to deteriorate."

Other senior police officers rejected these claims and sharply criticized the Sharon District and Central District commands, which are responsible for the Beit Lid area.

According to a senior police officer, acting Police Commissioner Avshalom Peled did not act as was necessary to divert Border Police forces in the area, and a junior police officer, the district operations officer with the rank of chief superintendent, was in actual command for hours; Sharon District Commander Nati Gur only arrived later. Furthermore, according to several sources, Peled did not bother to show up at the scene, in contrast to IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi.

"The clear policy was to turn a blind eye and not get in trouble with the minister [Ben-Gvir]," admitted a senior police officer. "We realized this in the afternoon at Sde Teiman, and we realized this in the evening at Beit Lid. If they had wanted, they would have prevented the incident at Beit Lid. The police is bankrupt, with no command; there is real chaos within the organization, which was beneath the surface, but broke out dramatically yesterday."

Military Police raided Sde Teiman Monday after, detaining nine reservists for questioning on suspicion of significant abuse of a Gazan detainee. Among those detained is an officer with the rank of major, a commander of a unit known as Force 100. Following the incident, dozens of protesters broke into the base, including members of the Knesset. After some time, they left and demonstrated in front of the base.

A soldier at Sde Teiman told Haaretz on Monday that "there were police forces near the base, but they entered the base to help stop the protesters only about an hour after the break-in, when the protesters left. There is no security force to deal with them, and there is no senior officer managing the incident."

After they were detained, the reservists were transferred to Beit Lid, and many protesters came there as well and broke down the gates to the base. Protesters tried to enter the military court building in the compound while soldiers tried to stop them, afterward storming the detention center. They called the soldiers: "traitors" and lit a fire.

Police officers present did not make any arrests. Commanders were called through the base's sound system to come to the scene. Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi arrived at the base at around 11:00 P.M. to chants by protesters to "go home."

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