Bodyguards assigned to incoming justice minister Shaked after threats made on her life

Knesset speaker told Army Radio that he was particularly disturbed by pictures circulated online of her in an SS uniform.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, YONAH JEREMY BOB
Ayelet Shaked (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Ayelet Shaked
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein ordered bodyguards to be provided to Bayit Yehudi faction head Ayelet Shaked on Monday, after she received threats on her life.
Edelstein told Army Radio that he was particularly disturbed by pictures circulated online of Shaked in an SS uniform, similar to an infamous picture of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin before his assassination.
“We were shocked to see clear threats to MK Shaked,” Edelstein said. “We are obligated to protect our MKs from harm.”
Shaked is expected to be sworn in as justice minister by next Monday. She has been subjected to harsh criticism by legal authorities who have warned that she would take steps to harm the legal establishment.
She also has been the subject of sexist remarks. Former infrastructures minister Yosef Paritzky wrote on Facebook that she is the first justice minister who can star on the calendars that hang in garages.
“She is very beautiful, like many of the Reich’s women,” he told Radio Darom.
Yediot Aharonot’s gossip column wrote Sunday about Shaked’s birthday weekend at the Kramim Spa in the Jerusalem hills. The column said she went to the pool but “unfortunately kept her clothes on.”
At the start of Monday’s Bayit Yehudi faction meeting, party head Naftali Bennett asked to “tone down the discourse and refrain from chauvinist comments against Shaked.”
Former justice minister Tzipi Livni also came to Shaked’s defense, writing on Facebook that although she strongly disagrees with her views, “the time has come for a real debate on opinions and leave the craziness of SS uniforms in the history books at Yad Vashem.”
Other current and former lawmakers recently provided with bodyguards include MKs Haneen Zoabi (Balad), Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), and former MKs Moshe Feiglin (Likud), and Eli Yishai (Yahad).