On the morning of June 7, Omar Yassin, a 21-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel from the city of Tayibe, which borders the West Bank, shot and killed an Israeli Jewish man and severely injured four others. Yassin committed what is called a “rolling attack” that continued in several locations. He began at a gas station in Kochav Yair, a Jewish town on the edge of the West Bank, just inside Israel, and moved to neighboring towns before fleeing to the stone quarries in Tayibe, where Israeli police and Shin Bet operatives shot and killed him. Initially, news reports said there was a second shooter, but Israel’s national police later said there was only one perpetrator.
Most Israeli Jews have already forgotten the attack. They are preoccupied with the prospect of renewed war with Iran, which just a few weeks ago had them running to bomb shelters several times a day. As far as Jewish Israelis are concerned, the incident is over; the perpetrator was shot and killed.
Jewish Israelis, according to the discourse amplified by domestic media, saw the attack as proof that all Palestinians, citizens and residents of the occupied territories alike, are potential terrorists. While the search for Yassin was ongoing, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, said that if the perpetrator of the shootings were caught alive, the minister would demand his execution. This would have been in accordance with a law recently approved by the Knesset, which calls for the execution of any Palestinian who commits an act of “terrorism” — defined as “causing death with the intent to deny the existence of the State of Israel.” Because the law does not apply to Jewish citizens, many European Union leaders have described it as evidence that Israel is implementing a policy of apartheid, which is a crime against humanity.
Ben-Gvir and his supporters were likely looking for a precedent, one that would provide an opportunity to implement the new law. But Israeli security forces almost always follow the operational protocol known as “neutralizing a terrorist” as quickly as possible; they are not accustomed to taking prisoners.
Since Israeli Jews have forgotten the attack so quickly, Ben-Gvir can no longer use it to stoke political flames, but by inserting a call for implementing the death penalty into the public discourse, the incident did establish a significant precedent that is likely to become normalized without any political or social debate. Ben-Gvir gave Israeli national police and the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, carte blanche to occupy Tayibe while searching for Yassin. Tayibe is an Israeli city populated by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
In neighboring Jewish towns, residents were told to stay indoors as special forces carried out searches in public spaces. Tayibe, however, fared much worse. Israeli special forces treated it just as they would a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank. Their Israeli citizenship provided no defense to the residents of the city. Ben-Gvir can thus be said to reflect the views of the majority of Jewish Israelis in seeing all Palestinians as potential terrorists who must be treated as such, regardless of their citizenship or legal status. Israeli Jews won’t see the need to discuss this matter any further. It will be viewed as common sense.