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After two attacks that left one Israeli dead in Tel Aviv and one Palestinian dead in the West Bank, coalition MKs failed to condemn the West Bank shooting, with the far right National Security Minister labelling the settler suspects ‘heroes’

Following Friday evening’s shooting of a Palestinian man in clashes between armed Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank village of Burqa, no ministers or members of the governing coalition condemned the killing, even after Shabbat ended on Saturday night.

On Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the settlers suspected of the murder of 19-year-old Palestinian Qosai Jammal Mi’tan deserve praise: “Anyone who defends himself from stone-throwing should receive a commendation.” He added that he hopes for a “thorough investigation also of the Arab rioters who threw stones and tried to murder Jews.”

In a separate message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ben-Gvir lashed out at Israeli media for suggesting the Israeli settlers under arrest were murder suspects, writing, “A Jew who defends himself and others from murder by Palestinians is not a murder suspect, but a hero who will get full backing from me.”

Unlike the media, he added, “I’m always on the side of my people, especially when there is a mortal danger hanging over the head of a Jew who had to respond with determination and heroism.”

Lawmakers and cabinet members have not mentioned the connection between the suspect and the coalition party. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Ben-Gvir released statements on Saturday night, all concerned the terror attack in Tel Aviv, in which a municipal patrolman was killed by a Palestinian, and did not mention the events in Burqa.

Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv visited the settler suspected of murdering Mi’tan at the hospital in Jerusalem, lambasting the military’s spokesperson for his “false statement that settlers entered a Palestinian village.” She added that “hours of assimilating false information that serves the left’s narrative.”

Coalition Knesset member, Limor Son Har-Melech of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party compared the murder of the Palestinian to the Tel Aviv attack. “When a patrolman neutralizes a terrorist, he garners praise from defense officials. But when a Jew defends his life from an Arab mob in [the West Bank,] he’s arrested while wounded,” she said.

Son Har-Melech added that she “recommends that the defense establishment direct its energy toward dealing with the terror dens instead of chasing after Binyamin residents who hold a devotion to our country.”

In response to Har-Melech’s comments, leader of opposition Labor party Merav Michaeli said the far-right lawmaker “supports terrorists.”

“If an Arab MK would have [said what she said] after the attack – which was committed by a close associate of her – an investigation would have been opened against him, as well as a demand to outlaw his party for supporting terror,” she added.

According to a report by Ynet News, Shin Ben security service chief Ronen Bar warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the two attacks that Jewish terror “fans the flames” of Palestinian terror. In response, Har-Melech accused the security service of “not being able to differentiate between an enemy and your own people.”

Likud MK Tally Gotliv also responded to Bar’s comments, saying that “the left’s ideas have made it to the top of the Shin Bet. The depth of the ‘deep state’ has reached the heads of the Shin Bet and the IDF.”

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, on Friday evening, armed settlers brought their flocks of sheep to graze at an area near Burqa, after which Palestinians from the village came to chase them away. Clashes erupted, escalating into stone-throwing before the settlers opened fire, killing 19-year-old Qosai Jammal Mi’tan and wounding four Palestinians.

Several Israelis were also wounded by the stone throwing, and a Palestinian car was set ablaze during the clashes.

On Saturday, two settlers were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing. A security official said that the two are far-right activists from the Ramat Migron outpost. According to the official, one worked as a spokesperson for a lawmaker in Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, and was considered a target of the Shin Bet security service. The other, who is suspected of shooting Mi’tan, is currently hospitalized in serious condition after sustaining a head injury during the clashes.

Opposition member Benny Gantz responded to the attack, labeling it part of a “dangerous nationalistic Jewish terrorism.” Gantz mentioned other recent attacks carried out by Jewish settlers in the west bank and criticized Israel’s “national leadership” for its “silence, lack of support for security forces” as well as “the fact that government and coalition members are backing the same extremists [which carry out the attacks].”

Earlier Saturday, Honenu – a nonprofit that provides legal aid to Jewish terror suspects, and is representing the two men who were arrested – claimed that the settlers fired at the Palestinians out of self-defense. The dozens of Palestinians that clashed with the settlers, the organization said, were trying to lynch them. “The rioters fired firecrackers directly at them, and threw stones from point-blank range,” they said.

Following the incident, the Israeli military declared the Burqa area to be a closed military zone, and requested that the Oz Zion outpost, from which the shooter arrived, be cleared out immediately. This is not the first time that the IDF has requested the eviction of Oz Zion, but political officials have prevented it from taking place.

The military now believes that the Palestinians may try to take revenge by attacking the outpost and turning it into a regular site for riots, which would demand a large IDF presence for an unnecessary disturbance. The IDF has also begun patrolling the streets around Burqa, and put up checkpoints at the entrance and exit of the village in order to check cars that are passing through.