The riot by Jewish settlers in the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwarra on Feb. 26 was a fire waiting for ignition. A gunman assumed to be Palestinian, who apparently still hadn’t been caught as of yesterday, provided it by killing two settlers. According to a report in the Middle East Eye (MEE), the rioters were praised by extreme right-wing leaders, including certain members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, lending credence to charges that the government encouraged the rioters.
In a since-deleted tweet, Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy head of the Samaria Council that governs illegal settlements in the northern West Bank, called for Israeli politicians to show no mercy and said that the “village of Huwwara should be erased today.” The tweet was liked by the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party, a member of the coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Smotrich’s liking of the tweet by Ben Zion also drew condemnation and was viewed by some as the state sanctioning of mob violence. “Our minister of finance, minister of the defense ministry and a member of the security cabinet supports erasing an entire village when the only sin of its inhabitants is that they are Palestinians,” Shir Nosatzki, a social media entrepreneur, said on Twitter.
