Bennett calls for new Operation Defensive Shield to stop Jerusalem terrorism wave

New Operation Defensive Shield is necessary to stem the violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said on Thursday.

 

“A government that hides behind concrete blocks and does not defend its citizens and provides deterrence has no right to exist,” he said in a speech at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, referring to the blocks placed at Jerusalem Light Rail stations Wednesday night.

 

The strategy of relying on defensive measures fell apart and another Operation Defensive Shield is required to protect Jerusalem, he said.

 

Operation Defensive Shield was a large military operation in Judea and Samaria 2002, in response to the suicide attacks of the second intifada, with incursions into Ramallah, Tulkarm, Kalkilya, Bethlehem, Jenin and Nablus. The IDF put then-PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s presidential compound in Ramallah, the Mukata, under siege and enforced strict curfews for Palestinians.

 

“In Defensive Shield we entered the centers of [Palestinian] towns and the terrorism stopped. We didn’t hide; we attacked. We didn’t run away; we won,” Bennett declared.

 

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