Netanyahu's Facebook page sends warning of Arabs who 'want to destroy us'

"We turned to Facebook. They must act immediately to put an end to this racist and dangerous incitement by Netanyahu against the Arab population," said Joint List leader Ayman Odeh.

By TZVI JOFFRE
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises to do all he can to build a coalition in a press conference Monday 27.05.2019 (photo credit: NOAM REVKIN FENTON / FLASH 90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises to do all he can to build a coalition in a press conference Monday 27.05.2019
(photo credit: NOAM REVKIN FENTON / FLASH 90)
A message sent by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page called on voters to avoid a left-wing government of “Arabs who want to destroy us all – women, children and men – and allow a nuclear Iran that will kill us,” reported Maariv.
The message aimed to rally votes for the Likud party.
Joint List leader Ayman Odeh condemned the message, saying “We turned to Facebook. They must act immediately to put an end to this racist and dangerous incitement by Netanyahu against the Arab population,” according to KAN.
“[The message] was a mistake by a worker at the campaign headquarters,” said the Likud party in response to the incident. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t see these things [and] did not approve them. They are not his opinion and are not accepted by him. When these things were brought to his attention, he asked that they be removed immediately.”
“This is how a blatant distribution of hate and racism looks, but there is something that can be done,” Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said. “Go onto Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page and report his page as a hateful page and help stop the incitement.”
Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif said that the prime minister had “finally crossed the line of sanity.”
“Such a blatant and explicit Nazi statement should shock and terrify every person, on the Left and on the Right,” Cassif said.
“Even if the words were publicized by mistake, the commander’s spirit is clear. See [Likud] MK [Miki] Zohar’s statements on ‘the Jewish race’ last Monday.”
"The message sent this morning as a script for discussions from the prime minister's Facebook page is a transgression of section 144 of the Israeli Penal Code against incitement to racism and violence," stated the NGO Amnesty International in response to the Facebook message on Wednesday.
"We will turn to the Attorney General in a demand to exhaust the law with a prime minister that isn't above the law and with his staff members," added Amnesty International. "The message from the Facebook page of the prime minister that says it is 'forbidden that there will stand a left-wing government that relies on Arabs that want to destroy us all' is a racist statement against a fifth of the citizens of the state, the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, and brings racism and incitement against an entire sector of the population of the country."

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"Additionally, is the more severe incitement to violence that is implied in the statement 'they want to destroy us all - children, women and men (the detail and the expansion in the original source),'" stated Amnesty International. "It permits the killing of 'Arabs' - read the Palestinians, because 'the one who comes to kill you, kill him first.' This message essentially is a statement that 'perfectly' combines racism, the delegitimization of people, intimidation and incitement and it comes from the publishing house of the appointed prime minister. We will not let this continue to happen and will not allow this to pass quietly."


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