IDF, police play blame game over settler riot

A top army officer blasts the police as "weak and understaffed."

By YAAKOV KATZ AND ABE SELIG
The IDF and Israel Police blamed each other on Sunday for failing to prevent Yitzhar settlers from running amok in a nearby Palestinian village a day earlier. A top army officer blasted the police as "weak and understaffed." The mutual recriminations came after dozens of settlers entered Asira el-Kibliyeh on Saturday and fired weapons in the streets and stoned homes and cars, in response to the stabbing of nine-year-old Tuvia Shtatman by a Palestinian who had infiltrated Yitzhar. Six Palestinians were wounded in the village. The boy was in satisfactory condition in the hospital. "The IDF's job is not to arrest settlers but to stop terrorism," a top officer explained. "The police unfortunately are weak and understaffed and do not have adequate resources to curb the violence." Also on Sunday, a group from Yitzhar tried to establish a new settlement outpost near Asira el-Kibliyeh in response to the stabbing. Shortly after trying to move onto the hilltop, the settlers were evacuated by security forces. At the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert slammed the Yitzhar settlers and said Israel would not allow people to carry out pogroms against Palestinians. The growing phenomenon of settler violence against Palestinians and IDF soldiers would be dealt with harshly, he said. "There will be no pogroms against non-Jewish residents in the State of Israel," the prime minister said. "We have law enforcement authorities. We have police. We have security services. First and foremost, we have a military that knows how to deal with incidents in which Jews are attacked and to fight terrorists, and it will not lend a hand to those who take the law into their own hands and attack innocents as was done over the weekend in the worst way." Judea and Samaria Police sources said an investigation was under way, but that they did not have any evidence that could lead them to the perpetrators of Saturday's rampage. As of Sunday afternoon, no complaints had been filed on behalf of the villagers. "We don't know who committed what," police district spokesman Danny Poleg said. "We don't have any evidence, and we work based on facts. But just because there haven't been any official complaints filed, it doesn't mean that we're not investigating - we are." He rejected allegations from the IDF that the police lacked resources or manpower, and said that his force had done more than its part. "When the [stabbing] incident occurred, the whole line of command from our district was there," Poleg said. "The top officers were there in the field along with about 150 officers, some of whom pulled 24-hour shifts. As a police officer, I would like to deploy cops on every corner in every city to make it safe for my kids and your kids, but it just doesn't work like that. We send officers into an area according to the situation. On Saturday, we moved our officers into the area, and I can say that after that nothing else happened." However, settlers from Yitzhar did manage to enter the village after the stabbing, smash windows and fire their weapons into the air. Six Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, and a riot broke out between the settlers and Palestinians. "As far as running into the village, that's the army's job and they were there," Poleg said. "We don't go into a village without the army backing us up or without permission from the army to enter, that's the way it works. We work together. As soon as they clear the area and give us permission to enter, we do. But yesterday, by the time they gave us that permission, there was nothing left for us to do." Poleg stood by the police officers' efforts on Saturday and said there had been no talk of reexamining their deployment in the area or changing current operating procedures. "I don't think there's any need to change our policies," Poleg continued. "We will continue working by the same laws and rules in the field. The army is in charge out here, and the [police] officers get their authority from the army."