Israeli lawmaker smashes Palestinian memorial in occupied West Bank

An Israeli Knesset member, Zvi Sukkot, smashed a Palestinian memorial in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, drawing widespread condemnation. Sukkot, who is a member of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, was seen destroying the Palestinian Martyrs Monument in the village of Madama, located south of Nablus, using a sledgehammer.

The incident was captured on video and posted to Facebook. In the footage, Sukkot asserted that the memorial honored two Palestinians who had killed Israelis and argued that it should not be allowed to remain standing. He stated, "We must take it down," adding that he wished to destroy the memorial because children growing up in the village and encountering it might be motivated to become "martyrs" themselves.

Sukkot, who serves as the chair of the Knesset Education Committee, was accompanied by Israeli military forces during the act of vandalism. However, the Israeli military later claimed that the destruction had not been authorized. The army revealed that they had conducted raids on several Palestinian villages in the Nablus area following Sukkot's formal request to inspect memorials in Beita, Burin, and Madama.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, the military stated that the Madama memorial's demolition was not approved through the proper channels and that their forces halted the act of destruction.