Avishai Ben-Haim on the attack: They shouted 'Moroccan trash', it was a stabbing

July 15, 2020   

Dr. Avishai Ben Haim, a commentator for News 13, was attacked last night (Tuesday) along with the news team during the violent left-wing demonstration that took place in front of the Prime Minister's residence on Balfour Street. Ben Haim spoke with Erel Segal and Avi Issacharoff about the violent attack and the mood at the demonstration. This is the university that allows you to study from anywhere and at any time convenient for you. Avishai Ben-Haim emphasized: "I hate that there are thousands who come out to demonstrate and really do democracy properly and then they don't bother with them." He said that "at first it was a legitimate democratic demonstration, people came with great pain, with harsh texts, and the demonstration is a departure from the democratic game. The texts on the stage were 'no violence, no violence.' During and after the demonstration, there were a lot of harsh and violent texts at really extreme levels." But after the demonstration, a procession began from the Prime Minister's House towards the center of Jerusalem, and there "there was a big riot, including a real physical attack on our team. Our photographer Kobi Cohen was beaten with a stick, not for nothing. There is a segment that was broadcast live by Guy Lerer on 'Tsinor', you see that our microphones are being dropped and suddenly the camera stops filming. It didn't just stop filming - the photographer himself was also attacked." Orly Bar Lev was interviewed this morning on Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal's show and claimed that the attackers were right-wing implants. Ben Haim said that he does not believe that the attackers were provocateurs or implants: "I think they are idealistic people." He said that among the signs he calls 'threats', there was one that caught his attention the most, with the words: 'I will not remain silent because my country has changed its face.' In his opinion, this best expresses the true nature of the protest. "I do not believe that it is because of corruption, because of the submarines, the corona or economic, it is not. There is something deeper here, in the end the struggle is for hegemony to maintain its power. A war on the hegemony of the elite. 'I will not remain silent because my country has changed its face,' as far as I am concerned, that is the title, I empathize with this feeling." During the demonstration, a protester was recorded shouting at Ben Haim, 'Moroccan trash.' Ben Haim: "According to my theories that say that the sectarian aspect is an irrepressible part of the internal Israeli conflict between the first and second Israel, between the hegemony and those who are trying to participate in the game through democracy, but this was a big stab. You hear these shouts in the megaphone, by the way, there were much more serious, threatening and terrible shouts. "That too if it weren't for the importance I attach to this matter of saying 'Don't tell me it doesn't exist because it does exist and don't tell me it's not a subtext,' because we see the characters in the demonstrations, including those of the other side. We saw how they take things that are a hundredth of what happened yesterday, there was no demonstration from the demonstrations of support for Bibi that was there what happened yesterday, so that there would be no misunderstandings. We saw how they took them to shape an anti-Mizrahi stereotype, broadcast it and turned it into something terrible." Ben Haim continued his remarks by saying that he sees great importance in bringing this matter to light: "I don't see any importance in a journalist taking the focus on it, I think it's almost immoral, because after all, there was a demonstration. People, they have an argument, they have a position, they came out of their homes, and you say let's deal with the journalist who was there, that seems unfair to me. I am the first to say that this is a legitimate protest, but if you suppress the class and sectarian element in the struggle that is taking place in Israel today, then you are closing your eyes, and this struggle is being carried out through the figure of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu." Avi Issacharoff wondered how it is possible that the Prime Minister, an Ashkenazi, an elitist, is the one who represents the sectarian struggle? Dr. Ben Haim explained: "It is possible that an entire public under oppression elects someone from the elite, who is similar to the elite, who is closest to the elite, in order to represent it in that elite. This is what happened with Netanyahu, the common people elected Netanyahu to lead the struggle. But remember the national aspect, the perception of the second Israel is a perception that favors the national and Jewish elements, over the class and sectarian ones. "Netanyahu is perceived as representing national sentiment, and that is part of the matter. Supporting him is responsible and state-based support, for a man who was perceived as representing the Jewish people against the gentiles for 25 years in the best possible way, that's how he is perceived, and that's the basis of his support. You'll understand that you now want to put Begin in jail." Next week, Ben Haim's series on preserving Mizrahi and Moroccan identity will air: "This is not a position of division, nor of division, God forbid. The preservation of Moroccan identity and Mizrahi is not because of the ethnic element in it, it is not an ethnic quarrel, but because I think and we will see it in the series, that Mizrahi and Moroccan identity have a different proposal for how to run a modern Jewish state, how to run a shared religious space of secular and religious traditionalists, how to run the relations of a Jewish state in the heart of an Arab Middle East. Therefore, I think we have another proposal and such calls of 'Moroccan trash' have something profound in them. You say, 'Come on, he got it because that's the subtext.'""  

During our broadcast, Avishai Ben Haim and Yossi Eli are attacked by protesters pic.twitter.com/IOhiuDjifN

— guy lerer (@guylerer) July 14, 2020

Ariana Melamed claimed this morning in an interview with Golan Yochpaz and Anat Davidov that the attackers are right-wing transplants, and that they are not at all connected to the protest or its organizers. Dr. Ben Haim said that he "really does not address this factual matter. If Ariana Melamed says this, even if it is not true, as far as I am concerned she is denouncing the phenomenon and saying 'it does not belong to me,' then I am fine with her." Baruch Kara claimed that the demonstrations in support of Netanyahu were more serious, 'statements by right-wing people were more serious,' and Dan Margalit, who was also present at the demonstration, said that he identified with the attacker's words. Ben Haim said about this: "Not at all. The attacker who attacked this sweet 80-year-old Danny Margalit stood between me and him in a noble move of a journalist who was a great figure here, as far as I am concerned I am not moved by this. I'm not angry with him, I saw a person who attacked me not with racist shouts, I saw a person who shouted from the bottom of his heart. It hurts him and probably my interpretation hurts him, I respect his shouting, I have no bad word to say about the shouting. It comes from an ideological, clean, and pure place. It was sharp and frightening, but I have no complaints about it." He noted: "There was a point when I was walking down the street alone and there was the attack with words that a Nazi is too small for them, one shouts like that but the rest come and arrest him and apologize immediately. You can't take this minority and ruin the demonstration of this entire public with it." He concluded: "Love, lowering the profile, turning a blind eye to conflicts - this is how you run a country without fighting.".