Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday issued restraining orders barring members of a radical left-wing group from Judea and Samaria.
Activists with a group called "Anarchists Against the Wall" – an anti-Zionist movement founded in 2003 to protest the security barrier enveloping parts of Judea and Samaria – have been instigating "violent provocations" each week in a number of Palestinian villages, Bennett said, adding that there was evidence that the alleged violence was aimed at harming Israeli soldiers, damaging property and causing "serious public relations damage" to Israel's international image.
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"Orders of this type have so far only been issued in the Jewish public against price-tag activists and will now also be directed against anarchist activists on the Left," a statement from his office said, using the name given to acts of vandalism by Jewish radicals against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The restraining order will apply to Jonathan Pollak, the group's founder and a longtime campaigner against Israel's policies in Judea and Samaria, as well as to 30 other of the group's activists.
IDF troops deployed in the area have also been instructed to "act firmly" against any violence by the group, the statement said.
"No one was the right to harm IDF soldiers and Israel's security in the name of freedom of expression and the right to protest. The time has come to stop the cheap provocations by these same anarchists and take a strong hand against internal enemies," Bennett's statement said.
