BICOM

A senior IDF officer yesterday said that Israeli soldiers would show ‘much more tolerance’ towards Palestinian demonstrations than in the past, thanks to riot-control training and new equipment designed to reduce injuries and deaths. Brigadier-General Michael Edelstein, the officer charged with crafting Israel’s counter-demonstration doctrine, said troops were now better equipped and trained to respond to demonstrations in the West Bank and the borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. ‘The balance has changed. We have more means that we can use, therefore the use of lethal weapons will decrease,’ he told foreign reporters in a briefing. 

Israel has invested heavily in non-lethal riot-dispersal gear, including accurate tear-gas launchers, high-powered loudspeakers that emit an intolerable buzzing noise and cannons for dousing crowds with water or a foul-smelling liquid known as ‘skunk.’ The objective, Edelstein said, was ‘to be able to handle riots while diminishing casualties on both sides.’

Israel is concerned over large-scale protests after the Palestinian leadership approach the UN later this month to demand full membership of the independent state of Palestine in the West Bank. Last May and June, hundreds of Palestinian rioters repeatedly attempted to infiltrate into Israel across a fortified border from Lebanon and Syria in two separate protests. Several demonstrators were subsequently killed.