A far-right member of the Israeli parliament has badly damaged a Palestinian memorial with a sledgehammer in the occupied West Bank while under military escort.
The incident has drawn strong criticism from Palestinians and across the political spectrum in Israel.
Video footage showed Zvi Sukkot, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, and several others striking the stone memorial in the Palestinian village of Madama.
In the video, Sukkot – who has a history of provocative anti-Palestinian acts – says: “This is something we cannot leave standing here, because any place that glorifies terrorism, we must remove it.”
Rami Nasar, the head of the village council in Madama, said that the monument was erected in 2008 to remember Palestinians killed in the battle of Karameh – a day-long military confrontation between Israeli forces and those of both the PLO and Jordan in 1968.
It also memorialises Palestinians killed in the first and second intifada.
Nasar said it was intended to honour those who had been killed in conflict with Israel, whatever their political affiliation.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its soldiers had been present during the incident. The Israeli military said it had approved a tour of monuments in the area for Sukkot and was providing security.
But the IDF said he and the others involved had acted deceptively and without authorisation.
It said soldiers eventually stopped Sukkot and escorted his group out of Madama after reporting the incident to their commanders.
In a number of previous incidents involving settler violence, soldiers have been filmed standing by without intervening.
The incident has further raised the temperature in the West Bank, where increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians in recent months have drawn international condemnation.
Madama itself has been the target of several attacks by settlers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has issued a statement criticising Sukkot’s actions. It read: “Taking the law into one’s own hands, especially when it involves public figures, is a reprehensible practice that prevents the IDF from focusing on its missions of combating terrorism and incitement to violence.”
Netanyahu’s main rival in the upcoming general election, Gadi Eisenkot, said that Sukkot’s behaviour was “a disgrace for anyone who claims to represent the public and be a leader”.
Eisenkot also criticised Netanyahu for “allowing anarchists like Zvi Sukkot and his ilk to do whatever they please, endangering security in the settlements and harming Israel’s standing in the world”.
But finance minister Bezalel Smotrich – who heads the Religious Zionism party to which Sukkot belongs – directed his fiercest criticism at what he called the “frantic rush of the left-wing opposition to condemn Sukkot rather than terrorism itself”.
On Monday, the most senior Israeli military officer in the West Bank, Major General Avi Bluth, was reported by Israeli media to have told Netanyahu in a closed-door meeting that the mounting violence by settlers could ignite a major escalation.
