Soldier arrested for threatening to be ‘next Yigal Amir’

An Israel Defense Forces soldier from the center of the country was arrested on Monday on suspicion that he had posted threatening Facebook statuses inciting violence against election candidates from left-wing parties.

Officers from the Beersheba police moved in after receiving intelligence information about the soldier’s statements and detained him during the morning. He was set to be arraigned later Monday.

According to police, the soldier posted a status to his Facebook account in which he made an open threat against left-wing politicians.

“If the leftists rise to power, I promise and swear on my soul that I will be the next Yigal Amir,” the soldier wrote, referring to the Jewish extremist who assassinated then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Rabin was leader of the Labor Party.

The soldier, during questioning, admitted to the accusations against him.

“The police takes this matter very seriously as an abuse of the freedom of speech and legitimate protest, by way of threats and incitement, in an attempt to influence the elections,” said Ilan Shoshan, the deputy chief of the Beersheba police department.

Shoshan added that the police had a no-tolerance policy regarding such incidents and would always bring to justice those involved.