Right wing violence has the implicit blessing of the government. From Haaretz at archive.ph:
Right-wing activist Mordechai David, in Tel Aviv’s Magistrate Court, last week.Credit: Moti Milrod
State prosecutors have filed charges against Yaakov Itach, a person who has threatened to murder Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara. “A new era of Kahanism has begun – soon you will tremble before leaving your house,” he informed her through social media. Itach is not the visionary of the new Kahanist state, only a small cog in the Bibi-ist and Kahanist machine.
Even before the Military Advocate General affair, the Bibi-ist-Kahanist right- wing camp marked the country’s watchdogs as targets. The gatekeepers are not the only ones in their crosshairs. The poison machine has also marked Hadas Klein, a witness in Netanyahu’s trial, and journalist Guy Peleg. Klein is facing the legal arm of Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, who is exploiting the courtroom for disseminating slander against her while trampling a court ruling stating that any discussion of Klein be held behind closed doors.
The agents of incitement on the street and on social media take it up from there. Peleg is facing threats on the street and on social media, issued by right-wing activists and extremist organizations, as well as the cabinet members embracing them.
In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, Klein described three years of slander and threats against her, starting after she testified against Netanyahu. A chronicle of a citizen fulfilling her duty transformed into an enemy of the people, while the judges remain silent, signaling that everything is permissible. Peleg is also under assault. His publication of the video showing horrific abuse of a Palestinian detainee by soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility, a basic journalistic action, is described by the right as a betrayal of the soldiers. Ministers Yariv Levin and Itamar Ben-Gvir are embracing Mordechai David, who assaulted Peleg and blocked his car. Violence is being framed as “legitimate protest,” as if these were citizens protesting people in power and not an assault against a journalist.
