Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan condemned the announcement by Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar regarding Jewish riots after the shooting attack at Eli Junction last week.
“I condemn this shocking all-encompassing, and unprecedented political message. I demand from the Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, and Head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar to apologize for the political generalization of over half a million pioneer settlers in Judea and Samaria,” demanded Dagan.
According to him, “Everyone knows that the group that takes the law into their own hands over and over again is a negligible minority, most of whom are not from the settlement, and even those who are are a small minority that should be taken care of by you. Yes – by you! By the system. You are supposed to solve it.”
Dagan accused: “Your duty and role are to capture criminals, and that’s what the public expects of you. It’s your duty. However, according to the law and according to the rules in democracy – and yes, administrative arrests only against settlers in the Jewish community is discrimination, and it’s not democratic.”
“I call on you and even demand of you: Be professional and not political,” demanded Dagan and clarified: “Your job is to fight the enemy – the real terrorism that threatens not only the residents of Judea and Samaria but the entire State of Israel. The public in Judea and Samaria and the great majority of the citizens of the State of Israel love and admire the soldiers of the IDF and the members of the security system and pray for their success – the success of our country and the security system, more than any other population, both draftees and reservists. The generalized and political announcement to the media deeply hurts the same public and the same majority of the people. Precisely because the army and the settlement are always together – the damage is twice as great.”

“Those like the Chief of Staff, the Commissioner, and the head of the Shin Bet know that the handful who time and again take the law into their own hands do not represent the settlement,” wrote Dagan and explained, “Because they are a minority and most of them do not live in Judea and Samaria at all. You know more than anyone how much effort the Jewish settlement leadership puts into this issue more than any other leadership – in every region and every other population group. You know best – because you are in contact with all of us. And in meetings, you speak differently than the general and political media message you issued. Instead, you chose in an indecent way to issue a message that includes and produces false and political delegitimization.”
“The attempt to create an equation between the murderous terrorism of the Palestinian Authority and the vandalism of a handful of boys that you know very well does not represent anything – is a moral wrong and, above all, a lack of professionalism,” he claimed.
In conclusion, Dagan wrote: “Yes. When I understand that all the groups in the State of Israel choose to discredit Israeli citizens who live in Judea and Samaria and impose administrative arrests (compared to zero indictments for the Ayalon and Kaplan protesters), yes, this is discriminatory, unacceptable, and anti-democratic. I call on you: stop and apologize.”