Late Monday night, a group of Israeli soldiers entered a Palestinian village to arrest terror suspects. While leaving, the soldiers were set upon by ten villagers throwing stones, one of which killed Sergeant Amit Yigal. Meir Indor, who was himself once injured in the head by a rock thrown at his car, urges the Israeli government to change its policy toward stone throwers, who are now give light sentences and protected by the IDF rules of engagement:
The current jail sentence for stone-throwing is three to seven months. If someone is injured, the terrorist will get between one year and eighteen months, if the injuries aren’t permanent. [Yigal’s] murderer could have been caught after an earlier stone-throwing, that didn’t cause damage, and would have gotten a slap on the wrist, which sends [the] message: try again until you succeed.
[Earlier] this week, youngsters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF forces who came to demolish a terrorist’s home, and their jeep was burnt—without any real response. . . . Israeli soldiers can no longer be abandoned in their battle against terror. . . . Opening fire on stone-throwers must be legislated as it is in the U.S., where a stone is considered a weapon.
The U.S. has understood the devastating potential of stone-throwing and has defined it as using a lethal weapon . . . which allows for harsh sentencing and punishment.
Read more on Israel Hayom: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/we-need-an-aggressive-response-against-stone-throwers/