Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned on Monday that the violent discourse in Israel could result in another political murder, after he told a party meeting that he and his wife received death threats.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu accused lawmaker Idit Silman of lying about physically attacked to smear the right. The Yamina MK said that she was pushed two weeks ago at a gas station in city of Modi’in.
LISTEN: Racist Jew vies for French presidency, shocking and splitting Jewish voters
During the Yesh Atid meeting, Lapid said that "the danger is not only the murder of another politician," referencing the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, "because, as terrible as it may sound, it will no longer surprise anyone…The danger is what we are becoming.”
The alternate prime minister and foreign minister also read a message he received online that said, “Yair Lapid, I wish you would die of cancer today. You are just like Hitler, you will receive a bullet from me or someone else.”
He also read a message his wife, Lihi, received online: “You and Yair deserve to be punished God, even more than what you received with Yaeli… May God take revenge on you and Yaeli, with more plagues and punishments." Yaeli is the Lapids' daughter who is autistic.
"This violence is permeating everywhere in this country: in the streets, in schools. If we do not stop it now, together, we will become nothing but a violent and hateful society," Lapid added.
At the Likud faction meeting on Monday, Netanyahu said that “for years we’ve been fighting false accusations to smear an entire camp" and against the endless efforts to portray right-wing voters as "a violent horde, inferior, inciters, apes, crude" among other things.
"Now we have the coalition whip telling a story that may be made up,” Netanyahu said. “So Ms. Silman should either provide proof of the incident or apologize immediately to two million Israelis from the nationalist camp whom she smeared."
The former prime minister vowed that he would do all that he could to "bring down this bad government and restore a true right-wing government that engages in decisive, real and respectful debate, and which above all, honors the eternal values of the people of Israel.”
"We are accustomed to hearing the hypocritical preaching about ‘respectful discourse’ from the left. They, of course, did not preach respectful discourse when they supported the Black Flag protests, when they desecrated state symbols, when they incited for the murder of a prime minister and his family members, when they incited for murder with guillotines and nooses. I didn’t hear a word about respectful discourse."
According to the former prime minister this is because rhetoric from the right is always treated as incitement, but rhetoric from the left is always "freedom of expression.”
On Sunday, Silman filed a formal complaint with the Knesset Guard saying she was attacked by a passerby in Modi’in two weeks ago. As she related on the “Meet the Press” program on N12 News the day before, Silman said she was forcibly pushed against her car. Before the complaint was filed, right-wing lawmakers cast doubt on her claims and questioned why she had not gone to the Knesset Guard or the police.
This morning Silman said that she and her fellow party members have been attacked numerous times, and filed complaints about some of the incidents. At the opening of a session of the Knesset Health Committee, Silman said: “It is no secret that for five months, since the government was founded, I as coalition whip and my colleagues from Yamina have been under attack."
Click the alert icon to follow topics:
"discourse" - Google News
November 09, 2021 at 02:15AM
https://ift.tt/305wjpP
Foreign Minister Lapid warns of violent discourse after receiving death threats - Haaretz
"discourse" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KZL2bm
https://ift.tt/2z7DUH4
No comments:
Post a Comment