Israeli youths participate in a Tel Aviv candlelight vigil Sunday for Shira Banki, a teen who died after being stabbed during a gay pride parade.BAZ RATNER/Reuters
Emotions continued to run high in Israel and the Palestinian West Bank on the weekend in the wake of attacks by Jewish extremists that claimed two lives late last week.
Sixteen-year-old Shira Banki, one of six people wounded when a knife-wielding ultra-Orthodox man attacked a gay pride parade in Jerusalem Thursday, succumbed to her wounds Sunday.
Meanwhile, the parents and brother of Ali Dawabsheh, a Palestinian toddler killed Friday morning when extremists set fire to the family's home, remain in critical condition in Israeli hospitals with massive, life-threatening burns.
Clashes that broke out on the weekend between Palestinians protesting the arson attack and Israeli security forces led to at least two more Palestinian deaths.
"We recently witnessed two abhorrent crimes," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday, referring to the stabbing attack and the firebombing. "I have instructed security and law-enforcement officials to use all legal means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and deal with the stabber and the arsonists to the fullest extent of the law."
As of now, that will include "administrative detention" by which authorities can jail suspects for up to six months without charge, subject to the approval of the country's attorney-general.
More than 5,000 Palestinians are currently being held under this measure, the Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem says.
"To the best of my knowledge, there have been no instances of Israelis being held in administrative detention in recent years," B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli told reporters.
Israel's security cabinet said in a statement that it views the arson in Duma as a terrorist attack in every respect and instructed that draft legislation on the fight against terrorism be urgently advanced in the Knesset and that it also apply to those who perpetrate terrorism of this sort, meaning terrorism by Jews.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has taken the lead in expressing public remorse for these attacks and has come under death threats as a result, his staff said Sunday.
Speaking at an anti-violence rally in Jerusalem Saturday night, Mr. Rivlin warned that the flames of hatred, violence and "false, distorted and twisted beliefs are spreading through the land," and that Israel could no longer afford to continue dismissing these attacks.
"These flames, which are consuming all of us, cannot be extinguished with weak condemnations [by politicians]. These flames cannot be extinguished with solidarity rallies. Not even with this rally," he said.
The answer, he said , must start at the source. "We must be thorough and clear; from the educational system, to those who enforce the law, through to the leadership of the people and the country. We must put out the flames, the incitement, before they destroy us all," he warned.
At a similar rally in Tel Aviv, Saturday night, former president Shimon Peres said "dark, extremist forces" are threatening to destroy the state of Israel, and called on all Israelis to confront and rebuff them.
"Those who incite against Arab citizens of Israel should not be surprised when mosques and churches are set alight or even when a baby is burned alive in the night," Mr. Peres said, in what is viewed as a reference to Mr. Netanyahu who raised the specter of Arab "hordes" voting in mass numbers on election day in March.
Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog told the Tel Aviv protesters he too feels the shame. "The Jewish people are ashamed of the actions by some among us and we have come to ask forgiveness."
This is not the first case of Jewish terrorism in Israel's modern history.
In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler in Hebron, killed 29 Muslims at prayer in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians. A year and a half later, Yigal Amir, a fan of Dr. Goldstein, assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Between 1979 and 1983 a group known as the Jewish Underground attempted to assassinate a number of West Bank mayors by planting bombs in their cars. Bassam Shakaa, mayor of Nablus, lost both his legs as a result. Members of the group also carried out a "revenge" attack on an Islamic college in 1983, killing three students and wounding 33, when they tossed grenades into a classroom.