MP suspected of mosque arson appointed chair of Knesset West Bank committee

An Israeli MP who was arrested over an arson attack on a West Bank mosque has been appointed chair of the Knesset subcommittee overseeing the occupied West Bank.

Tzvi Succot, a member of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, was appointed on Wednesday as head of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee for West Bank Affairs, which deals with security and civil affairs in Israel-administered areas of the West Bank. 

The committee deals with issues such as building in the settlements and supervision of checkpoints between the occupied territory and Israel.

The committee also supervises the Israeli security forces and drafts bills in foreign and defence affairs.

Succot, a settler from Yitzhar near Nablus, was arrested by the Shin Bet intelligence services in 2009 after being suspected of involvement in an arson attack on a mosque in the village of Yasuf in the northern West Bank.

He was later released, but remained monitored by Shin Bet.

Also, in 2015 he organised a protest in support of the Israeli detainees suspected of involvement in the Duma arson attack that killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh and his parents.