The Palestinians are enraged that PA policemen prevented the lynching of two IDF soldiers.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

Two IDF soldiers were violently attacked by a Palestinian mob on Monday after mistakenly entering the Palestinian city of Jenin.

The soldiers, a male and a female, were driving a vehicle when they were suddenly surrounded by a mob that threw rocks at the car. Both soldiers were wounded, and one of their service weapons was stolen.

They were finally secured by Palestinian police who led them out of the city.

Now, these policemen who prevented the mob from lynching the two IDF soldiers, are under attack by the Palestinian street.

While sources in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security establishment said the rescue was proof of the successful security coordination with Israel, a social media campaign against the police has been launched, with users branding the police officers as “traitors.”

The Israel Hayom daily reported that Palestinians complained that the police prevented grisly scenes similar to those seen during the notorious 2000 lynching of Yosef Avrahami and Vadim Norzhich, two IDF reservists who were murdered by a Palestinian mob at a Ramallah police station.

A photo of a Palestinian showing the soldiers’ blood on his hands became an iconic image of the Second Intifada.

Palestinians on social media mocked the terrified soldiers, particularly the screaming and crying of the woman, saying it refuted the IDF’s indomitable reputation.

Other Palestinians praised the “heroic” Palestinians who attacked the soldiers.

The Times of Israel (TOI) quoted a PA official in Jenin who said that by rescuing the IDF soldiers, the Palestinian policemen avoided “providing Israel with an excuse” to launch a military operation inside the city.

The violent deaths of the soldiers would have elicited a forceful response from the IDF.

“Our men acted in a responsible manner,” the official said. “Our duty is to maintain law and order and prevent harm to anyone who enters our cities, regardless of their identity.”

However, for many Palestinians, the security coordination with Israel is a form of “collaboration with the enemy,” a practice that is regularly denounced as “high treason,” TOI explained.

One Hamas-affiliated website announced, “Palestinian Authority security protects two Zionist soldiers from attack by Palestinian youths in Jenin.”

Another Hamas-affiliated website published a cartoon featuring a PA police officer standing guard at the entrance to an Israeli community.

Khalil Abu Khaled, a Facebook user, wrote that “the youths of Jenin today displayed a unique form of heroism, while [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas registered a new page of shame in his black record.”