Israel’s Minister for Culture and Sports, Miri Regev. Credit: Tess Scheflan
Miri Regev, Israel’s minister for Culture and Sports, took to social media today (30th August) to condemn the women and children who tried to prevent an IDF soldier from arresting a 12-year-old boy who had his arm in a sling, as we reported yesterday. The video of the incident in the village of Nabi Saleh has had over two million views and been shown around the world, since it was published on Friday (28th August).
The Israeli army say the soldier was trying to arrest the boy as he had been throwing stones at IDF soldiers during a protest at the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, however activists at the scene deny this claim. Neither parties have alleged that the boy was armed, nor were the women and children who tried to prevent the boy from being detained by the soldier.
But Miri Regev, the Israeli minister from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party took to social media to criticise the actions of the protestors. Yishai Karow, of Israel’s Arutz Sheva, translates the minister’s post in his report:
Miri Regev’s Facebook post
“I was shocked to see the video this morning of Palestinians hitting an IDF soldier,” Regev declared. “It cannot be that our soldiers will be sent on missions with their hands tied behind their backs. It’s simply a disgrace!”
The minister stressed that anyone who tries to harm Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers “needs to know he’s responsible” for his actions.
“We must immediately order that a soldier under attack be able to return fire. Period,” Regev asserted, calling on Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) to put an end to the humiliation and “change [military] policy to permit opening fire immediately.”
The video of the events can be found below: