Dozens of Israeli reservists staged a protest against what they termed "hate crimes and racism" outside the radical West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on Sunday evening.



Yair Fink, one of the organizers, told the rally: "We regard defending Israel to be the highest value – both against terrorists from the outside and terrorists from within. As reservists, we draw a clear red line – before there is a murder here, which could be that of a soldier or friend from the army."



Arguments broke out between the protesters and settlers from the area. Gershon Mesika, head of the Shomron regional council, confronted the reservists, calling their protest "political demagoguery" and "cheap politicking." Fink, he pointed out, was previously an assistant to former Labor Party leader Sheli Yacimovich.



Fink replied that rather than preventing the reservists from demonstrating, Mesika should be preventing hate crimes from being committed. He also reminded Mesika that not too long ago settlers had destroyed an army base in Yitzhar.



Momik Nevo, a reservist and civics teacher from Jerusalem, said that that the reservists' rally was not a political protest, which enabled him to feel comfortable participating. "This is what I teach my students in civic classes – to be an involved citizen," he said. "We are here because a great crime is being committed and we are saying that human beings should not be harmed."



Also on Sunday, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino announced that a permanent police station would be erected in Yitzhar. The decision follows several violent incidents involving Yitzhar settlers in recent weeks.



After a joint tour of the settlement by Danino, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, it was decided to situate the new station in a prominent place in the center of the community, in order to better monitor and control the extreme right-wing elements operating in Yitzhar.



On April 6 the tires of the vehicle of Col. Yoav Yarom, commander of the Samaria Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, were slashed during a visit to Yitzhar. When Border Police forces entered the settlement to demolish illegal buildings there, settlers threw rocks, set tires on fire and blocked the road, precipitating clashes in which six Border Police troops were slightly injured. Settlers said four Yitzhar residents were also injured in the incident.