JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Incoming National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized IDF leaders for sentencing a soldier to 10 days in military prison for taunting activists in Hevron — and also demanded to visit him behind bars.
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Ben-Gvir was referring to an incident in which left-wing anarchists demonstrating in Hevron had verbally abused soldiers and disobeyed them until one soldier forcibly detained an activist and another taunted them, stating that “Ben Gvir is going to sort things out in this place. That’s it, you guys have lost… the fun is over.”
https://twitter.com/Issaamro/status/1596144028445179904
Soldiers are not supposed to express political opinions while in uniform but Ben Gvir claimed in a letter to Defense Minister Benny Gantz that there was nothing unacceptable about what the soldier had said and he did not deserve the humiliation of jail time for his words.
At the same time, Ben-Gvir criticized those who had lambasted the officer who meted out the punishment, Lt. Col. Aviran Alfasi, commander of the Givati infantry brigade’s Tzabar battalion. Ben-Gvir said that the political echelon was responsible for what had happened and not the officer, who was apparently following Gantz’s orders.
Likud MK Miri Regev also protested the soldier’s punishment, calling it “disproportionate” and “smelling of a political order from above.”
Meanwhile, the jailed soldier sent a letter to Central Command chief Yehuda Major-General Fuchs and Givati commander Eliad Maor apologizing and asking that his sentence be dismissed or lessened.
“I said a few words without any intention of humiliating the IDF or committing an offense and I now find myself going to jail,” the soldier wrote. “I was under a lot of pressure during the incident and I only request consideration of everything going on there.”
“I ask for forgiveness. I understand my mistake,” he added.
Jail the officer that sent him to jail. The leftest were there to foment trouble and cause this incident . These soldiers are young men and there emotions run high
Give that soldier a promotion!
A soldier who cannot control himself is hardly a soldier at all.
I love Ben-Gvir & his stance:- My understanding is, that an MK cannot be refused entry, so that Ben-Gvir has absolute right to visit this innocent soldier, should he wish to do so.
for this he get a penalty of 10 days in jail? They should throw Gantz in jail for mishandling his job and letting security get out of hand.
zionists throw their soldiers as cannon fodder and then jail them for defending themselves. Zionist values.