The Shin Bet decided to boost security around Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s family on Tuesday after an envelope containing a death threat and a bullet was received at the Bennett family home in Ra’anana.
“Political conflict, no matter how profound, should not reach violence, bullying and death threats,” Bennett tweeted. “We need to do everything, as leaders and as citizens whose future and the future of their children are in this country, so that such phenomena simply do not happen.
We are all human beings,” adding that he is not only the prime minister but also a husband and father.
סכסוך פוליטי, לא משנה כמה הוא עמוק, לא צריך להגיע לאלימות, לבריונות ולאיומי מוות. אנחנו צריכים לעשות הכל, כמנהיגים וכאזרחים שעתידם ועתיד ילדיהם במדינה הזאת, כדי שתופעות כאלה פשוט לא יתקיימו. כולנו אנשים. ויכוחים וחילוקי דעות - כן. בריונות ואיומים - לא. >>
— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) April 26, 2022
Bennett called for “calm and reconciliation,” especially on social media.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also emphasized the online incitement.
“We will continue to fight the discourse of hatred in the street, online, everywhere,” he stated. “They will not scare us. The extremists will not defeat the sane majority.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that “one bullet in an envelope can turn into three bullets fired from a pistol,” alluding to the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Bennett’s close political ally, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, described the threat as “shocking,” and compared it to the political atmosphere in ancient Israel, before the destruction of the Temple and the loss of Jewish sovereignty.
Religious Zionism leader MK Bezalel Smotrich expressed his doubt that the threat was real, saying it may be a “spin intended to improve [the prime minister’s] public situation and delegitimize the Right and justified protests against Bennett.”
אני לא יודע אם פרסום החקירה על מכתב האיומים שנשלח לבנט הוא ספין שנועד לשפר את מצבו הציבורי ולעשות דה-לגיטימציה לימין ולמחאות הצודקות שלו נגד בנט, או אירוע אמיתי. אני כן יודע שאלימות חייבת תמיד להיות מחוץ לתחום! אבל גם שעברו הימים שיסתמו לימין את הפה בזעקות על "הסתה".>>>
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) April 26, 2022
But he added that violence is unacceptable.
The threat comes days after reports that he spent NIS 87,700 (nearly $27,000) of taxpayer money per month on the delivery of takeout meals, cleaning and workers at his private home in Ra’anana, where he and his family live, as opposed to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.
Bennett’s office responded that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent far more - NIS 280,000 ($86,000) per month – on the Prime Minister’s Residence and on his personal home in Caesarea.
Critics have said that Bennett’s decision to reside in Ra’anana has cost millions of shekels, while Bennett himself has said that the Shin Bet asked him not to move into the Jerusalem residence so that it can improve security there.
The Shin Bet has released a rare statement that its costs to cover Bennett’s security in Ra’anana are similar to the outlay for previous prime ministers.