Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir traded barbs on Wednesday with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi over the jailing of a soldier who had taunted leftist activists in Hebron.
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Ben-Gvir criticized the 10-day confinement handed down to a soldier who was filmed on Friday warning pro-Palestinian activists in the flashpoint city: "Ben-Gvir will sort this place out." During the incident, soldiers also physically tackled activists and were subsequently disciplined.
Ben-Gvir, to whom Prime Minister-elect Netanyahu has promised the post of national security minister, with expanded powers over police, said on Twitter on Tuesday that the sentence was too harsh and weakened soldiers' resolve.
He also appeared in a video together with the soldier's father, demanding that the army review the punishment and drawing apparent criticism from Kohavi.
"We will not allow intervention by any politician, Left or Right, in commanders' decisions, nor use of the military to promote a political agenda," Kochavi told the soldier's battalion and brigade commanders in a telephone call, the military said on Twitter.
In his turn, Ben-Gvir, also on Twitter, accused Kohavi of making inappropriate political statements and said he had no intention of intervening in the commanders' punitive measures but demanded a change in policy.
The criticism drew rebuke from Israeli leaders. President Isaac Herzog at a memorial service said moral debates were important but that "We must not drag the IDF into the political field."
Netanyahu called on Twitter for Israel's military to be "left out of any political argument".
Ben-Gvir, a lawyer, says his positions have become more moderate. They include expulsion for only those he deems terrorists or traitors and looser open-fire regulations for troops facing Palestinian unrest.
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