Voices growing in Israel against gov't policies tolerating extremists' violent acts

By Ahmed Asmar

Voices in Israel have grown, expressing rejection to Israeli officials' acts that tolerate and back violence and riots committed by far-right extremist activists, considering these acts as defying Israeli legal systems.

At least one Israeli minister and Knesset (Israel's parliament) members were seen among the crowds that stormed into two military bases to protest the arrest of soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee.

Besides Israeli opposition groups and figures rejecting and condemning such acts, Israeli senior journalists and writers also protested the acts of the far-right Israelis and the support they receive from officials and government members, as well as the reported sexual abuses against Palestinian detainees.

Yaakov Katz, an Israeli writer and author, ruled out that those far-right activists were in defense of the soldiers accused of the recent incident.

"What is really happening is that members of the Israeli government are actively trying to sow discord in the military and undermine its chain of command," Katz said on his X account, adding that they do such acts "to deflect criticism from themselves over the failures that led to the disaster of Oct. 7."

He noted that rioting in the military bases serves the Israeli government members and the ruling coalition to retain control and remain in power.

"There is a simple way to describe these politicians and their supporters - they are criminals. They are breaking into military bases to disrupt a legal process. They need to face the full force of the Israeli criminal justice system," he added.

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, an Israeli analyst and social media activist, on his X account commented on the incident of breaking into the military bases by Israeli rioters and the suspected sexual abuses committed in the Israeli prisons against Palestinians.

He said that in the past, he believed the Israeli government in denying the reports by the New York Times and CNN over the abuses in the Sde Teiman prison facility.

"But today, I realized how much I was lied to. By my country. By my friends. By my media. Today, many of the people I talked to who denied these allegations admitted they were true." Ben-Ephraim said.

"Worst of all, many of the people in this facility were innocent. Rounded up by accident. But there was no real verification process before they were subjected to this hell on earth," he also said, adding: "This can't go on."

Several reports emerged of severe abuses against Palestinian detainees at the notorious facility since the start of Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children, and medics since Oct. 7, 2023.

In recent months, the army has released dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza in deteriorating health conditions, with their bodies bearing torture scars.

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.

More than 39,360 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 Ahmed Asmar.