Netanyahu announces plans to arm Israelis after attack on Jerusalem

Netanyahu announces plans to arm Israelis after attack on Jerusalem

Israel has announced plans to make it easier for Israelis to obtain firearms amid escalating violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the measure late Saturday after calling a meeting of his security cabinet — filled with hardliners — over two shootings that included an attack in occupied East Jerusalem.

Seven people were killed in a shooting outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem on Friday.

“We are deploying forces, we are amplifying forces and we are doing this in different arenas,” Netanyahu said on Saturday.

He promised to expedite gun permits for Israeli citizens and step up efforts to collect “illegal weapons.”

The homes of the suspected attackers would also be sealed just prior to demolition, he said, “to exact an additional price from terrorism supporters.”

His office later announced that social benefits for the attackers’ families would also be cut.

It also promised new steps to “strengthen” illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, but gave no details.

Al Jazeera diplomatic editor James Bays said Netanyahu’s plans to approve more gun licenses for Israeli citizens come as Israeli police encourage those with existing licenses to carry their guns as well. “While Netanyahu is urging Israelis not to take the law into their own hands, he is also putting more weapons in the same hands,” he said from occupied East Jerusalem.

Bays described the measures against the Palestinian families as “collective punishment”.

“This is a clear violation of human rights,” he said.

Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst at Al Jazeera, said arming civilians in Israel could further escalate violence.

“They are trying to further arm already armed people in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Bishara said, adding, “More violence and more suffering will only play into the hands of the most extreme extremes.” [groups] in Israel and possibly in Palestine.”

The weekend shootings came at the end of a month of growing confrontation and followed an Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin that killed nine Palestinians and an exchange of gunfire between Israel and Gaza. In all, Israeli forces have killed 32 Palestinians this month.

An Israeli military spokesman said an additional battalion had been sent to reinforce the occupied West Bank.

Analysts in Israel said Netanyahu was under pressure from hardliners in his cabinet, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The government in Israel is the most right-wing in Israeli history.

Ben-Gvir, who had been pushing for more gun permits, said Saturday he would also push for the death penalty against “terrorists”.

He said the new Security Cabinet measures were “important” but wanted “much more”.

“Itamar Ben-Gvir has a reputation for being a firefighter and now Netanyahu is giving him a full container of oil,” said Akiva Eldar, a contributor to Israeli daily Haaretz. “I’m afraid Netanyahu’s hands are tied. Between two evils he has to choose which side to take and I’m afraid there isn’t a responsible adult in his cabinet who can stop him,” Eldar told Al Jazeera.

The latest measures were announced on Saturday, as tens of thousands of protesters also gathered in the city of Tel Aviv to protest separate plans by Netanyahu’s government, which took office in December, to overhaul the country’s judicial system and weaken Israel’s Supreme Court.

The protesters also observed a minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of the Jerusalem shooting.

The escalating violence has meanwhile raised the question of a third Palestinian uprising.

Basem Naim of Hamas, the group that governs the Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that they were ready to respond to any further Israeli incursions. He said the group was determined to defend its people and their families, as well as Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

“We do not plan or initiate any escalation or violence campaigns. At the same time, we are ready to respond [to attacks] as always,” he said.

Naim said Hamas will seek the freedom of its people by any means available, including diplomatic, political and armed means.

The Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank also stood by its decision to halt security coordination with Israel to protest the deadly raid on Jenin.

After a meeting in Ramallah chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority called on the international community and the United States to force Israel to end its crackdown on the West Bank.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday and Tuesday.