Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday railed at anti-judicial overhaul protest leader Shikma Bressler after the latter referred to far-right elements in the government as “Nazis.”
Asserting that no consensus on judicial reform can be reached with the most extreme members of Netanyahu’s government, Bressler said during a Friday panel, “It is forbidden to hold a dialogue with Nazis, whether they are Jews or not.”
She pointed to the widespread spotting of stickers at a pro-government rally in Jerusalem on Thursday that expressed support for several Jewish terrorists, such as Baruch Goldstein, who murdered 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994; Amiram Ben Uliel, who is in prison for the 2015 deadly firebombing of a Palestinian family in the West Bank village of Duma; extremist rabbi Meir Kahane; and former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin Yigal Amir.
Bressler tweeted out an apology several hours later, saying, “I made a mistake in my comments. I used a word that has no place in the conversation. I’m sorry, and I apologize for this.”
Later Saturday, though, Netanyahu issued a statement condemning Bressler’s “scandalous remark” as “Holocaust distortion and wild incitement to murder government ministers and elected representatives.”
“The right to protest is not the right to incite,” he added.
A roll of stickers reading ‘Yigal Amir was right’ seen at at right-wing pro government demonstration in Jerusalem on September 7, 2023. (Courtesy/Bar Shem-Ur)
Several protest groups lashed Netanyahu for his statement.
A group of reservist protesters from secret ops units said: “Netanyahu, when your son and ministers called us for months Nazis, SS troops, and terrorists, you didn’t say a word. Your silence was deafening. So spare us the hypocrisy.”
“The greatest inciter in Israeli history — a man who lies as often as he breathes, a ] prime minister who will be remembered as the one who brought Israel to a crisis the likes of which it has never seen — will not preach morality to anyone.”
Meanwhile, other coalition members took aim at Bressler for her comments.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Bressler’s remarks showed “contempt of the Holocaust,” and he urged “from wall to wall condemnation, no matter one’s political camp or opinion.”
“A woman that compares religious Zionists to Nazis commits wild and serious incitement,” he tweeted. “Protest, yes. Incitement, no!”
“Not even one politician from the ‘enlightened’ camp dares to condemn the protest leader’s ugly words,” coalition whip Ofir Katz tweeted. “A camp that is full of ‘formers.’ IDF chiefs of staff, Mossad officials, police officials — everyone trembles before her.”
