Violent mob protest in Israel: Chaos or coup attempt?

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - In an unprecedented incident that has shaken Israel, hundreds of right-wing protesters broke into two military bases in southern and central Israel on Monday to protest the arrest of nine soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman Prison in the Negev desert.

The protest, however, was condemned by centrists and leftists as an "attempted rebellion and coup."

Videos circulated on social media showed ministers and Knesset members storming the Sde Teiman facility followed by right-wing activists violently storming the Beit Lid military base shortly after.

“The General Security Service should open an investigation into the extent of the involvement of the top police, MKs and ministers in the government in the coup attempt that was carried out yesterday,” Yair Golan, leader of the Labor Party and former deputy chief of staff, posted on X.

He said that “senior officials in the IDF (army) confirm this morning that the southern district of the police refrained from sending police reinforcements to Sde Teiman field for 3 hours.”

“This is a serious omission or the subversive involvement of senior officials. This is an essential investigation that may lead to the office of the Minister of National Security himself (Itamar Ben-Gvir),” Golan warned.

The Israeli leader said that the “deliberate absence” of the police from the entrance to the Beit Lid base and the nearby military courts center “was no accident,” accusing Ben-Gvir of “preparing a rebellion in the IDF (army) and anarchy in the service of a criminal minister.”

- ‘Militia rebellion’

Military analyst Amos Harel of the Israeli daily Haaretz echoed Golan's sentiments, describing the events at Sde Teiman as “an attempt to lead a militia rebellion.”

“The extreme right has been waiting for such an opportunity since the beginning of the war. Now the chance may have arrived,” Harel said.

“This is not a case of emotional identification with soldiers who got into trouble,” he added.

“The extreme right is trying to force a different set of values on the IDF (army), values that would allow unrestrained vigilantism in the West Bank while preventing any internal or external supervision of the soldiers’ and settlers’ actions,” Harel elaborated.

He warned that surrendering the army to the extreme right “would destroy the army from within, deeply eroding what's left of its discipline and ethical values.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for restraint on Monday but did not promptly hold those responsible for the base breaches accountable.

- Abyss

Opposition leaders accused Netanyahu of succumbing to the demands of Ben-Gvir and extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who repeatedly threatened to topple his government.

In this respect, opposition leader Yair Lapid declared on X on Monday evening “We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss.”

He noted that Knesset members and ministers who participated in the storming of military bases “sent a message to the State of Israel: they are done with democracy, they are done with the rule of law.”

“A dangerous fascist group threatens the existence of the State of Israel,” Lapid said.

Meanwhile, Israeli daily Haaretz said that Netanyahu has lost control of Israel’s extreme right.

“The chain of events at the Sde Teiman military detention facility Monday and afterward at the entrance to the Beit Lid army base in the Sharon is the living and direct proof of the advanced disintegration of Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu,” it said in an editorial.

“The Netanyahu state has lost control of the extreme right. He who sows chaos shall reap chaos,” it added, warning that “If they are not stopped, they will dismantle the state for good.”

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 39,400 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul