IDF soldier arrested on suspicion of threatening MK
Unnamed suspect wrote on Facebook that Meretz MK Issawi Freij was asking for ‘a bullet between the eyes’
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An IDF soldier was arrested Friday on suspicion of posting threatening messages on Facebook to Meretz MK Issawi Freij.
The soldier, whose name was not released to the press, published the threats on Facebook over the course of six months, most recently two weeks ago, but was not arrested until Friday. The soldier, 19, serves in a combat unit and hails from the Galilee city of Nazareth Illit, Israel Radio reported.
According to screen captures of the posts by Ynet, the unnamed soldier wrote in a series of Facebook messages to Freij that “it’d be a shame if I catch you someday,” and “what, can’t you shut your mouth, you son of a thousand whores?” and “you really want a bullet between the eyes.”
Police confiscated the man’s personal computer for investigation and will request an extension of his remand from the Magistrate’s Court in Nazareth.
Freij snapped screen captures of the Facebook posts by the soldier and posted them on his own wall, commenting that according to the offender’s Facebook page, “he’s an IDF soldier, even volunteered in the past with Magen David Adom and is a fervent supporter of Rabbi Kahane,” a late right-wing nationalist whose racist Kach party was banned from the Knesset.
“His speech is that of Amir Benayoun,” Freij said, referring to an Israeli singer whose song “Ahmed loves Israel” garnered accusations of racism. “It’s a dialogue of hatred, of cold-blooded murder, of racism and nationalism.”
The suspect’s lawyer, Sayed Hadad, said that his client was sorry about the things he wrote and that he had no intention of carrying them out.
“He is a lone soldier who serves in a combat unit. As a result of the traumatic incidents that took place during [last summer’s] Operation Protective Edge, he was outraged by the statements of MK Issawi Freij,” Hadad said.
It wasn’t clear from the reports which remarks Freij, an Arab MK for the left-wing Meretz party, made that outraged the soldier.
“I’m happy the police addressed the issue seriously,” Freij told Ynet. He responded to reports of the soldier’s arrest saying on Facebook that “threats on my life will not cause me to stop acting for the sake of a better society, coexistence and an end to racism.”
“I will continue to be part of the camp that wants a better life,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.