Families of Arab terrorists will lose their permits to work in pre-1967 Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday during a visit to Gush Etzion.
An Arab clan or family “know that it has in its midst someone who is extreme or someone liable to attack,” Netanyahu explained, “and a family like that does not have the right to work in Israel.”
A number of Bedouin families in southern Israel have quietly contacted security personnel over the past weeks about relatives who were planning to carry out terror activities, according to sources who spoke with JewishPress.com. “There have been a number of parents, and in several cases, brothers or fathers or both, who have taken the initiative to call authorities and prevent attacks,” the sources said.
While it is certainly true that blocking the ability to work in Israel might hurt some Arab families, those with any deep or passionate ideological ties to terror are not likely to be disturbed by this turn of affairs. The Palestinian Authority government, and a number of foreign Arab governments guarantee generous monthly salaries to the families of any Arab who is injured, imprisoned or who dies as a “shahid” or “martyr” on the altar of attempting to murder an Israeli or Jew. Those payments, in fact, may be even higher than any monthly salary earned by the prospective “shahid” who might otherwise be seeking employment either in Israel or the PA.
In addition to revoking work permits and blocking others, the prime minister said that bypass roads may be built to circumvent the high-risk areas presented by the current wave of terror, such as the Gush Etzion junction.
Netanyahu went to pay his respects at the site, where numerous terror attacks have taken place in recent weeks. The latest one resulted in Sunday’s stabbing death of 21-year-old Hadar Buchris, z’l, who was laid to rest Monday in Jerusalem.
The prime minister was accompanied to the site by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and other top officials. During the visit he met with Gush Etzion regional council head Davidi Pearl, Efral local council head Oded Ravivi and Kiryat Arba local council head Malachi Levinger.
Netanyahu told the officials other measures are in store for further tightening security as well: alongside the other actions, every vehicle driving with Palestinian Authority plates on the main roads will be inspected.
He also said the government is preparing to “deal with” the incitement being disseminated on social media, using ‘various means.’ However, Netanyahu did not elaborate, nor did he offer any explanation.
The prime minister told angry Gush Etzion residents that security forces in the region have been increased, and enter Arab towns and villages to make numerous arrests.
“There is no limit on the activities of the IDF and the security services,” Netanyahu said. “On the contrary, there is full [government] support, and that is important.”
He added that during the second intifada, there were hundreds of deaths each year with armed attackers and suicide bombers. “We don’t have that now, and we are doing everything we can to ensure it won’t happen.”
During the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield that was carried out to trim back the terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, he reminded the residents there were ‘terrorist command centers, and thousands of armed men’ in the territories. Because of Defensive Shield, Israel now operates freely in Judea and Samaria “to act against plots, attackers or weapons factories,” he said.