'Bennett, your hands are stained with blood' - Bayit Yehudi alleges incitement by leftists
Bennett's Facebook page has been inundated with threatening messages that allegedly encourage violence against the minister as well as other right-wing politicians.
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: AUGUST 6, 2015 01:09Naftali Bennett(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Bayit Yehudi filed a police complaint about growing incitement against Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday.The party said that since the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade stabbing and the firebombing in Duma, Bennett’s Facebook page has been flooded with calls to harm him and other right-wing politicians.Commenters called Bennett “Hitler” and a “murderer,” as well as saying that the blood of Shira Banki, who was fatally stabbed at the parade, is on his hands because he let Bayit Yehudi members “speak their dark opinions freely.”“Naftali Bennett, you will not be able to wash off the bloodstains.Religious assailant stabs six at Jerusalem Gay Pride marchThey will remain on your soul,” a commenter named Or wrote.Bayit Yehudi Youth Forum chairman Yonatan Dobov, who submitted the complaint, said he was shocked that “a moment after the two horrific murders, some people want more blood,” and he criticized those who spread hate and who blame an entire population group for the attacks.“Bennett is regularly attacked by the defenders of freedom of speech and pluralism,” Dobov quipped.“Last year, he was physically attacked at the Haaretz peace conference.”The complaint came after social media users photoshopped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in SS uniforms and produced doctored videos of them speaking German. Rivlin has been the target of a wave of violent comments on social media in recent days.MKs on the Left mocked Bennett’s “whining” about incitement, while criticizing his opposing views on gay marriage, in addition to controversial statements by Bayit Yehudi MKs about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people.
MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) wrote on Facebook that she “believes that [Bennett] was alarmed by the commotion around him, but instead of taking a deep look inside, he decided to cynically act like the victim and try to turn the actual victims into scapegoats. No one is as talented at inciting while whining as Naftali Bennett.”According to Zandberg, Bayit Yehudi made homophobia and racism its open agenda, and then cried when it was criticized, because its words had “murderous results.”She shared images of violent comments she had received on Facebook, many of which called her a traitor and said she should be hanged or decapitated.MK Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union) called Bennett “infinitely egocentric,” and he suggested he should have complained about the incitement against Rivlin or the LGBT community.“He should be ashamed. A week hasn’t passed since the murder, Shira Banki’s parents are still sitting shiva [mourning period], and Bennett hasn’t even called them because he’s too busy. But the Right’s bulldozer is turning pain into demagoguery...working non-stop,” Hasson said.Hadash activist Alon-Lee Green, a former aide to Joint List MK Dov Henin, filed a complaint to the police about Bennett and Bayit Yehudi MKs Bezalel Smotrich, Yinon Magal and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in response to the education minister’s complaint.“We cannot let them turn us into those who incite. We cannot let them lie and claim that we are the ones who incite and not, for example, Smotrich, from their party, who in recent days, after the attack, continued to call us an abomination that needs conversion therapy and called the whole Arab population our enemy,” Green wrote on Facebook, as part of a caption to a photo of him outside a Tel Aviv police station. “We did not incite against anyone or any population group or community. We did, however, hear how they incite, how they turn entire population groups into illegitimate and enemies.”He did not specify who “we” refers to, but his party is one of several that make up the Joint List.Joint List MKs routinely call Israel an apartheid state and the Right fascists.They have praised Palestinian suicide bombers, Hamas for launching rockets as well as rock-throwers.They have also made derogatory comments about LGBT people.