Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Cherie Cullen / WikiCommons.

JNS.org – Following riots over the Israeli police’s fatal shooting of an Arab youth who attacked police with a knife in Kafr Kanna on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take a tough stance against Israeli Arabs calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“We will not tolerate disturbances and riots,” he said. “We will act against stone throwers and those who block roads and call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in place of Israel. … I will instruct the interior minister to examine the option of revoking the citizenship of those calling for the destruction of Israel.”

Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett defended the police in the Kafr Kanna incident, saying, “An Arab terrorist wildly attacked a police car with a knife, in an attempt to murder the [police officers]. … The police officers’ reaction was what is expected of our security personnel. Of course, we can and should always look into things, but this was not ‘cold-blooded murder,’ and we certainly should not repudiate our security forces personnel.”