Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party (RZP) leader Bezalel Smotrich scolded MK Zvi Sukkot following his destruction of a monument in Kafr Madama near Nablus, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
Smotrich reportedly told him he should not have acted without proper authorization and authority, and demanded that he not do it again.
Additionally, KAN News reported that RZP member Ohad Tal decried Sukkot's actions in the party's WhatsApp group, asking, "Was this move coordinated with the campaign? Is there some sophisticated strategy here that I’m not grasping, or have we simply decided to commit political suicide?"
Sukkot, in his own Tuesday morning X/Twitter post, argued his justification for the action, saying that "every child who sees every day a giant monument that glorifies murderers of Jews will dream of being a terrorist."
He claimed that he had taken action after appealing to the IDF several times to remove the "terror monuments throughout the area," and that destroying the monument in the village was"a small taste."
“There is no place for support of terror in the State of Israel!" he wrote.
Several other non-RZP government officials decried Sukkot's actions, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, B'Yachad leader Naftali Bennett, and several others.
IDF escort became cover for Sukkot’s unauthorized demolition of Palestinian monument
The IDF also condemned Sukkot's actions, though it confirmed that troops were diverted from standard operational duties to guard Sukkot and his aides on what he called a 'memorial tour' in several villages in Areas A and B in the West Bank.
It noted that "Contrary to the coordination, the participants acted deceitfully and manipulatively, without authority and in complete violation of the approved framework, and began demolishing one of the memorials in the village of Madama,” the IDF stated, claiming the soldiers spoke with their commanders after seeing what was happening and were instructed to intervene and remove the group from the village.
The footage shared did not show soldiers intervening.
A spokesperson for the IDF told The Jerusalem Post that the soldiers had not been sent with a photographer, as these assignments typically don't require one, and therefore were unable to provide footage of the soldiers intervening.
The Post has reached out to RZP for clarification.