Likud MK Zohar uses Holocaust terminology for possible Right loss
“The Right will not go like sheep to the slaughter,” he said, defending the Likud’s push to pass the “cameras bill” that would allow filming in polling stations, but not in ballot booths.
By LAHAV HARKOVMiki Zohar(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Likud MK Miki Zohar used a phrase commonly associated with the Holocaust to describe the possibility that the Right could lose in next week’s election, in an interview with Kan Bet on Monday.“The Right will not go like sheep to the slaughter,” he said, defending the Likud’s push to pass the “cameras bill” that would allow filming in polling stations, but not in ballot booths.That phrase usually refers to the idea that Jews were passive in the face of the Holocaust. Jewish resistance fighters used it to implore Jews to join them, and after the Shoah, it was used by some in Israel to demonize Holocaust survivors as opposed to those who took part in armed resistance.Zohar is the head of the Knesset Arrangements Committee, which is set to vote on putting the cameras bill on the Knesset’s agenda for a first reading on Monday. The move comes a day after the cabinet approved the bill, despite Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit’s opposition. The Likud hopes to push the bill through all three votes needed to make it law by the end of this week, days before the September 17 election.Late Sunday night, Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon said that passing the cameras bill at this time, so close to an election, is unconstitutional.“This unconstitutionality is a result of, among other things, giving a significant advantage to one party over the others, out of a real concern that it will deter voters, from chaos at the polling stations and from additional aspects…while protecting the integrity of the election is receiving an increased and unprecedented response through steps the Central Elections Committee is planning to take in the upcoming Election Day,” Yinon’s message says.Separate from the cameras bill, the Central Elections Committee will have 3,000 “election integrity observers” use 1,000 body cameras by Election Day. The observers will go to every polling station in the country over the course of the day and will only use cameras if they suspect wrongdoing. In addition, the entire vote-counting process will be filmed in polling places the Central Elections Committee’s Presidium – including representatives of Likud, Blue and White, Shas and Labor – deemed problematic.
