Do the IDF and other security forces treat incitement offenses with the seriousness they deserve? A report by the Knesset Research Institute, issued at the request of MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), shows that in recent years there has been a significant drop in the number of cases opened by the military prosecution, the main charge of which is incitement.
According to the report, while 2018 incitement cases were opened in Judea and Samaria in 104, in 2022 the number was only 18. The most significant drop occurred in 2020, when 24 cases were opened, compared with 92 a year earlier. In some years, most of these cases were closed after plea bargains were reached, and in some years they were all incitement cases.
On the other hand, the IDF and the Defense Ministry claim: "The number of cases in which the offense of incitement was attributed is higher than the data presented, in light of the fact that the classification of indictments is made according to the most serious offense in the indictment. In many indictments, incitement offenses are filed alongside other, more serious offenses, and therefore are not classified as incitement cases."
MK Zvi Sukkot, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In recent weeks, loud announcements and incitement have been heard in mosques throughout Judea and Samaria.
The report also includes partial ISA data on incitement charges, indicating that between 2018 and 2022, requests to open an investigation were submitted in about 40 cases. Of these, approval was received by the Deputy State Prosecutor in 30 cases, of which 20 indictments were filed. The police, on the other hand, opened 283 files between 2022 and 2018, of which 88 indictments were filed. In all judgments for the offenses in question, a conviction was established.
GPO
"The root of terrorism is incitement," says the report's commissioner, MK Zvi Sukkot. "A person can only commit the greatest of atrocities after being brainwashed for years. The sharp rise in terrorism in Judea and Samaria, which began in parallel with the dramatic decline in the treatment of inciters, speaks for itself. What was will no longer be. We have an all-out war on terror and incitement to terrorism."
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