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A lawmaker from Israel's far-right Religious Zionism faction has destroyed much of a Palestinian commemorative stone using a hammer, carrying out the act in an occupied West Bank village while travelling under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Footage circulated online captures Zvi Sukkot, a sitting member of the Knesset known for past confrontational actions against Palestinians, repeatedly striking the monument in Madama alongside a small entourage. In the recording, he can be heard defending his conduct, declaring that structures honouring what he described as terrorism could not be permitted to remain in place.
According to Rami Nasar, who leads the local village council, the landmark went up in 2008. It commemorates the Palestinians who fell in the 1968 battle of Karameh, a single-day clash pitting Israeli troops against fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization backed by Jordanian forces. The site additionally pays tribute to Palestinians who lost their lives during both intifadas, and Nasar stressed that its purpose was to recognise everyone killed in fighting with Israel, regardless of which political movement they belonged to.
The Israeli military acknowledged that its personnel were on scene throughout the episode. Officials said the army had green-lit a tour of heritage sites in the vicinity for the legislator and assigned troops to safeguard him. However, the IDF maintained that Sukkot and his companions behaved dishonestly and exceeded what had been authorised, adding that troops eventually intervened, halted the demolition and moved the group out of the village once commanders were informed.
Palestinians have reacted with fury, and condemnation has also come from across Israel's own political divide. Human rights groups have long complained that soldiers frequently watch passively when settlers assault Palestinians, and the episode lands amid a sharp rise in settler aggression that has provoked international censure in recent months. Madama, notably, has itself endured repeated assaults from nearby settlements.
Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the stunt. His office released a message describing vigilante behaviour by prominent public personalities as shameful, arguing that such conduct undermines the military's capacity to concentrate on its core duties of fighting terrorism and combating incitement.
His principal challenger ahead of the coming national vote, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, went further. He branded Sukkot's conduct an embarrassment for anybody purporting to lead the public, and faulted Netanyahu personally for permitting figures he called anarchists to act freely, claiming their impunity endangers residents of the settlements and damages the country's reputation abroad.
Yet within Sukkot's own camp, anger was directed elsewhere. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionism list on which Sukkot sits, reserved his sharpest remarks for opposition politicians, accusing the left of racing to denounce the lawmaker while failing to condemn terrorism with equal urgency.
Concerns inside the security establishment are also mounting. On Monday, Israeli media reported that Major General Avi Bluth, the army's highest-ranking officer in the West Bank, cautioned the prime minister during a private briefing that the growing wave of settler-perpetrated violence risked triggering a sweeping escalation across the territory.
The affair underscores the volatile mix confronting Israel ahead of its general election, with coalition figures openly clashing over how far settlers and their allies may go, and the military itself conceding that one of its own escorted tours ended with a parliamentarian smashing a village's memorial to the dead.
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