Photo Credit: Knesset Channel screen grab via Twitter
Leftist Israeli journalist Haim Shadmi speaks at Knesset conference on "settler violence," Nov. 21, 2021

At a Knesset conference to discuss “settler violence” radical leftwing Israeli activist Haim Shadmi urged Knesset members on Sunday to “Give us the permission to use weapons. We’ll do the work for the Palestinians. We won’t hurt anyone. We won’t hurt anyone. If you’re not capable of doing the job, we’ll save lives.”

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Speaking at a two-hour Knesset conference on “settler violence” organized by the leftwing members of the Knesset, Shadmi said he didn’t understand what was happening; “there is a debate as if the ‘occupation’ and ‘settler violence’ just started in the last few years. . . what is this, a conference that is all talk? Where are the solutions?”

Shadmi told lawmakers they should allow leftists to create an armed civilian guard to “protect human life because you do not know how to do it.”

Palestinian Authority citizens need that protection from Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, he said.

Conference organizers said in a statement that Shadmi’s remarks “do not represent our position in support of a non-violent struggle to end the occupation through peaceful means.”

Meretz Minister of Regional Cooperation Esawi Frej responded to Shadmi, asking him to calm down and telling him that he was being “inappropriate,” and “swept away.”

In a subsequent post hours later on Twitter, Shadmi wrote:

“1. When a minister in the government calls on us to be the “scapegoat” of politicians and do a part of their work;

2. When the State of Israel knows very well what is happening in the territories for 30 years or more: when she rolls her eyes about “refining procedures” and the like;

3. When a soldier gives a weapon (!) to a settler;

“The State of Israel admits that it is abandoning its citizens and Palestinians. So the state will allow us to secure the Palestinians and ourselves and equip us with weapons.

“Enough rolling the eyes and innocence. Either this is a sovereign state or a banana republic. Be a sovereign state.

“All those who take my words as if I said weapons for the sake of attack or with full intent of acquiring weapons – is miserable and rolling eyes. I loved the screaming.

“Those that are silent when activists or Palestinians are injured. How did Ahmad Tibi said in the discussion – will they apply the law of the south to Palestinians?” he wrote.

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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.