Samaria vineyard uprooted illegally, by an apparently leftist defense minister

A pure embarrassment occurred the other day, as defense minister Yoav Galant overrode finance minister Bezalel Smotrich's objections to uprooting a Samaria vineyard:

Following the uprooting of the vineyard established by the Ben Eliyahu family in the Shiloh Valley, MK Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism party) states that this is a continuation of the left's policy, and it will not contribute to the stability of the coalition.

"Just yesterday we sat down in Givat Harel with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and he said that this destruction should be stopped. There is no moral or legal justification for carrying it out," says Tal. He adds that, unfortunately, it seems that the only reason for the destruction is a power struggle between Defense Minister Galant and Finance Minister Smotrich.

"It pains me to say this, but it seems that the Defense Minister is trying to show that he is in control on the ground. This is very sad. We cannot continue to promote the left-wing policies of the previous government. This should not exist in a government that promised the public a different policy," says Tal.

Regarding the videos showing the security force's violence against MK Limor Son Har-Malech (Otzma Yehudit), Tal says, "when I saw the photos, I cringed. That's illegal. After all, she has parliamentary immunity. She is allowed to go anywhere. But I also cringed because it was inappropriate and I don't want to use the word harassment. This is inappropriate and illegal and must not happen in the State of Israel."

On that note, what happened to Har-Malech was very offensive too:

MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) accused one of the Border Police officers who blocked her from reaching the scene during the uprooting of a Jewish-owned orchard in Samaria Wednesday morning of sexually assaulting her.

"The police commander at the scene ordered three other policemen to form a human chain around me. When, after several minutes, I sought to leave the ring, he told me every time: "We are protecting and guarding you,"" MK Son Har-Melech told Israel National News - Arutz Sheva.

She said that when she attempted to get out of the circle of police officers, “one of them did something that is completely forbidden,” implying that the officer may have sexually assaulted her.

"When I manage to get out of the chain, the same policeman who gave the order to create the chain followed me. He realized that he had done something which is very serious and told me: 'You hit my policeman." At this point it became clear that he was trying to cover up what he had just done." she said.

All policemen who were involved should be fired immediately from their jobs and imprisoned for sexual violence. The one who was mainly responsible should be ostracized and made to pay serious compensation in addition to serving a prison sentence. This is certainly a serious issue, and will have to be addressed by Netanyahu himself. That somebody should have his vineyard business destroyed, and a woman her dignity, is absolutely obscene.

Update: more on the subject here, and also here.

Update 2: it says over here now that the commissioner in charge, Major-General Amir Cohen, suspended 4 officers, but refuses to apologize to Har-Melech for the repellent treatment she received. In that case, he must voluntarily resign too.