Israeli MP demands Palestinians be killed if they burn rubbish
An Israeli MP has called for Palestinians who set fire to waste to be killed, either by shooting or air strikes.
Zvi Sukkot, a far-right member of the Otzma Yehudit party, proposed the measure during a parliamentary committee discussion on illegal waste-burning on Wednesday.
“The Air Force needs to act and kill them,” Sukkot said. Committee chairman Yitzhak Kreuzer, also from Otzma Yehudit, and Environment Minister Idit Silman of the Likud party, agreed.
“The simplest thing is to send an F-16 to put out the fire,” Kreuzer added.
All three justified the idea of summary killings on the grounds that burning waste “constitutes terrorism”.
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Silman said her ministry should have powers to operate in the occupied Palestinian territory beyond the military presence.
“We need to establish a Judea and Samaria district within the ministry,” she said, using a biblical term for the occupied West Bank.
“This will be a de facto annexation that brings important environmental sovereignty,” she added.
The discussion came amid growing settler complaints about fires in the West Bank allegedly caused by Palestinians burning waste.
Dafna Ravid-Rabinovich, head of a regional settlement council, attended Wednesday’s session.
She criticised the lack of instructions for settlers on how to respond to the fires.
“What am I supposed to tell them? Not to send children to school, not to leave their homes?” she asked.
More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in violation of international law.
In recent years, Israeli authorities have increased the involvement of civilian ministries in administering the West Bank beyond the military occupation.
Experts say this civilian oversight amounts to de facto annexation, a goal openly supported by many Israeli officials.
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