Smotrich to Shin Bet chief: "Could it be that you are weak on Arabic networks?"'

June 5, 2021   

The chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, MK Bezalel Smotrich, responded this evening (Saturday night) to the unusual warning issued by Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman during Shabbat. "Good week, Shin Bet chief, a few weeks ago, Jewish citizens were killed and injured here in severe riots carried out by many Israeli Arabs. The Shin Bet under your leadership did not anticipate, warn, or prepare for this in advance. "The citizens of Israel deserve an explanation of where you were and how the incitement and nationalism that preceded these riots disappeared from your sight. Could it be that you are weak on the Arabic-language networks?" Otzma Yehudit Chairman, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, responded: "In recent months, there has been a phenomenon of incitement online against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his son and his wife. In addition, dozens of threatening messages and calls for murder have been received against me personally. "During a program broadcast from Habima Square on Channel 20, thugs broke into the broadcast, with one of the rioters shouting, 'It's a shame they didn't finish you off in Auschwitz.' I regret that the head of the Shin Bet did not find it appropriate to publish messages like he published today in recent months. I am very sorry that the head of the Shin Bet drives anywhere and everywhere. I am very sorry that people who threatened my life and the lives of the Prime Minister and his family are not being arrested. "With all of the above, I definitely call on everyone to lower the level of the flames. Despite the disagreements and the terrible disaster, Naftali Bennett is leading us and I call for maintaining the boundaries of the discourse." Minister Miri Regev responded: "We will continue to express our protest against the right-wing's theft of votes in a democratic and respectful manner, without violence. After years in which left-wing demonstrations took place without hindrance in Balfour, Petah Tikva and in front of my house even in the midst of a pandemic, there is no room for silencing and violating the right to protest, while painting the right-wing camp as violent and dangerous." MK Tzachi Hanegbi of the Likud: "Unfortunately, the left has turned the demonstrations in front of homes, in front of children and families of public figures, into a routine spectacle. I oppose any expression of violence, but we will not forget a year of humiliation of the Prime Minister's wife and his family.".