Original article: El rostro de la “amistad” con Chile: diputado de ultraderecha israelí destruye a mazazos memorial palestino en Cisjordania ocupada
Israeli far-right lawmaker from the Religious Zionism party, Zvi Yedidia Sukko, vandalized a memorial bearing the names of Palestinians killed in the town of Madama, located in occupied West Bank.
Sukko, who is also the president of the Israel-Chile Friendship Group in the Knesset, a parliamentary body aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries, committed the act of vandalism in the presence of Israeli soldiers and later shared images of the incident, justifying it as part of his fight against what he termed «terrorism.»
«Every child who sees a large monument glorifying the murderers of Jews will dream of becoming a terrorist,» he stated in a message shared on his account on social media platform X, accompanied by a photo of him holding the sledgehammer in front of the memorial he destroyed.
Sukko noted that in recent weeks, he had made several pleas to the Israel Defense Forces to dismantle the monuments, which he claims promote «terrorism throughout the region», and expressed hope that this would be carried out «as soon as possible.»
«In the meantime, I share a brief glimpse of what happened this morning in Madama beside the monument to the murderers of dozens of Jews,» he asserted while celebrating the act of vandalism he carried out, defending it with the argument that «there is no room for support of terrorism in the State of Israel.«
The Israeli military stated that its forces had been deployed to protect the monument and that the legislator and his companions destroyed it without authorization.
Zvi Sukko: A History of Violence, Extremism, and Colonization
The Palestinian Information Center (CIP) highlighted that the far-right legislator has been linked to the settler movement and openly supports the expansion of settlements and the expulsion of Palestinians. He co-founded Eyyatar, a settlement initially established without official Israeli approval near Nablus.
Currently, the 34-year-old parliamentarian resides in the Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank and has served as the head of the Knesset’s Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria since 2023, a term promoted by the Israeli government to justify the occupation of this territory.
In the case of Gaza, he has advocated for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements, permanent occupation of the enclave, and the relocation of the Palestinian population to third countries.
In 2010, Sukko was detained as a suspect in a fire at a Palestinian mosque in Yasuf but was released without charges due to lack of evidence. In 2012, the Israeli army temporarily barred him from entering the West Bank for planning violent actions against Palestinians; while in 2015, he participated in a demonstration that recreated scenes of torture, and two years later, he was arrested for vandalism associated with «price tag» attacks on Palestinian properties, although there is no record of a conviction or sentence.
In Gaza, he has defended the reestablishment of Israeli settlements, the permanent occupation of the enclave, and the relocation of the Palestinian population to third countries.
The far-right extremist has also promoted the annexation of the occupied West Bank and in July 2025 called for imposing so-called Israeli “sovereignty” over the territory, arguing that there should be «one state» between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, characterized as Jewish.
Within his rhetoric, he advocates for the expulsion of the Palestinian population and has gone as far as calling publicly for the destruction of homes to replace them with settlements for his own community, proposing to rename Palestine Square to Israeli Hero Square.
Statements made by Zvi Sukko, as reported by the international press, have led to his diplomatic isolation and the imposition of international sanctions, including those applied by the United States.
Executive Order 14115, signed by then-President Joe Biden on February 1, 2024, sanktioned those responsible for settler violence in the West Bank, including the Israeli lawmaker. As a result, he was placed on the Specially Designated Nationals list, which froze his assets in the U.S. and prohibited any financial transactions with Americans, as well as leading to global banking restrictions and the prohibition of entry to U.S. territory.
However, shortly after Donald Trump assumed his new term, he revoked all these sanctions against the Israeli far-right spokesperson.
The CIP questioned how a figure associated with the colonization of Palestinian territories and one who has promoted the expulsion of its population can be the face and head of the Knesset’s Israel-Chile Friendship Group. They indicated that this situation «raises questions about the political ties being promoted between both parliaments.»
As president of the group, Sukko participated on July 3 in a virtual bilateral meeting with a group of Chilean lawmakers, including Senator Carmen Gloria Aravena from the Republican Party and Deputy Miguel Ángel Calisto from the Democrats, highlighting the international projection of a figure whose history is marked by promoting illegal colonization, extremist rhetoric, and violent actions in the West Bank.
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