Rothman: Anti-judicial reform protests are like settler riots against Palestinians

RZP MK Simcha Rothman compared the settler riots in Turmus Aiya and other Palestinian villages after the deadly terrorist attack near Eli to protests against the judicial reform.

"Those who support the protests but oppose the riots are hypocritical," he said.

"Stop this posing immediately. As soon as you protest against the reform, you are allowed to call for arms and be violent, but if you are protesting about a petty and small matter that four people were murdered - then it's wrong?" Rothman said to Army Radio.

He refrained from condemning the rampage and repeatedly accused the interviewer, Razi Barkai, of having double standards because he did not ask others about condemnations of the actions of protesters against the judicial reforms.

After four Israelis were murdered by two Hamas terrorists near Eli on Tuesday, settlers entered the Palestinian villages of Turmus Aiya, Urif and Luban e-Sharkiya on Tuesday night and Wednesday, torching dozens of homes and vehicles and attacking local residents. Israeli forces worked to extinguish the fires and disperse the riots.

Latest MK to compare settler riots to anti-reform protests

Rothman, who is a central part of the government's attempts to pass its judicial reforms, was involved in a number of violent incidents in recent months.

On May 28, hundreds of people protested outside a conference he was participating in at Tel Aviv University. They surrounded him menacingly after his exit from the conference, and plastered his car with bumper stickers with slogans against the reform.

On June 5, Rothman was filmed snatching a megaphone away from a woman who was following him down a street in New York City and shouting against the reform. The Knesset member claimed that the woman had brought the megaphone to within a short distance from his face and that he had acted in self-defense.

Rothman's committee is set on Sunday to begin discussions on a law connected to judicial reform, for the first time since the reform was frozen at the end of March.

Rothman isn't the only member of the government to draw a comparison between the torching of Palestinian villages in price tag attacks to protests against the government, such as Druze riots in the Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement on Wednesday, "All Israeli citizens are required to respect the law. We will not accept riots, not in the Golan Heights and not in Judea and Samaria."

In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared anti-judicial reform protests to the torching of the Palestinian town of Huwara after a Palestinian terrorist murdered Hallel and Yagel Yaniv in the town.

"We will not accept lawbreakers and violence, not in Huwara, not in Tel Aviv, not anywhere," said Netanyahu at the time.

Neither Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich nor National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir addressed the attacks in Turmus Aiya.