Netanyahu sets 4-year minimum sentence for stone-throwers

The Israeli security cabinet has decided to issue an order that would set a four-year minimum sentence for stone- and firebomb-throwers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau said Thursday. 

The cabinet agreed to back legislation to allow live fire in any case in which lives are endangered; use of sniper rifles against rock throwers; a minimum four-year prison sentence for rock throwers, including imprisonment and fines for minors aged 14-18; the cancellation of welfare benefits for minors in prison; and an evaluation of fining parents of convicted children aged 12-14.

“The security cabinet has decided to authorize police to use live ammunition against people throwing stones and Molotov cocktails when the life of a third person is threatened and no longer only when a police officer is threatened,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The order is to remain in effect for three years.

Following the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that “In Israel, these murderous objects won’t be thrown unanswered and without prevention.”

The order has been issued at a time when the Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers have marred the lives of Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to Judaize the city, wipe out its typically Islamic identity, and hold sway over Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque.