MK (Yesh Atid) Yoel Rozbozov on Tuesday, 10 Tammuz, presented a solution to the issue of civilians attacking IDF soldiers. According to the bill initiated by Yesh Atid, “attacking a soldier” will be excluded from the offense of an attack described in the law to permit a more severe punishment scale. One who attacks a soldier or assists in an attack, shall be liable to up to seven years’ imprisonment.
In addition, it is proposed to distinguish between “attacking an IDF soldier” and “attacking an IDF soldier in aggravated circumstances” – if the assailant used firearms or a knife, or the attack was carried out by more than two people, they shall be liable to up to 10 years in prison.
Yesh Atid feels that imposing a stricter punishment on those who attack soldiers will act as a deterrence against those who today don’t think twice before attacking soldiers. The new bill would include soldiers under the category of “public servants”, permitting the more severe punishment similar to one assaulting a police officer.
The matter of the new bill was raised during a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Relations Committee.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
This is a bad idea. It undermines the principle of equality under the law and is a throw back to the Bolshevik days of early Israel. Under Israel’s initial communist system, there where strict categories of people. The rights and privileges you had were defined by your category. The categories themselves were purely political. The closer you were to the ruling elite, the higher your category. Everything from getting a telephone, apartment, job, medical services and legal standing was determined by your category. There is still a great deal of informal continuation of that system as shown by the privileged treatment members of the elite are shown by the GOI.