Benjamin Netanyahu: Zero tolerance for terrorism and hate crimes
There is “zero tolerance” for terrorism and hate crimes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday.
“In the last two days we have witnessed two abhorrent crimes. Our policy toward such crimes is zero tolerance. I have instructed security and law enforcement officials to use all legal means at their disposal to catch the killers and bring them to justice,” Netanyahu said.
He clarified that he meant in this case both the two masked men — believed to be Jewish extremists — who killed toddler Ali Dawabsha when they torched his family’s home in the Palestinian village of Duma on Friday and the ultra-Orthodox Yishai Schlissel who stabbed six people at the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday.
“We are determined to vigorously fight all manifestations of hatred, fanaticism and terrorism on either side. The battle against this phenomenon unites all of us. It is not a battle of one [political] camp or another, but rather an issue of basic human values, that are the Jewish values under which we operate,” he said.
What differentiates Israel from its neighbors, Netanyahu said, is that “we denounce and condemn these murderers and will chase them [until we find them], while [our neighbors] name streets after those who kill children.”