Amid right-wing boycott calls, chair of Strauss Group said to get death threats
Food conglomerate said to assign security detail to Ofra Strauss after decision to stop advertising on Channel 14 over panelist’s call to free Rabin killer
Israeli food conglomerate Strauss Group has assigned a security detail to the chairwoman of its board following threats to her life, Hebrew media reported Tuesday, amid right-wing calls to boycott the firm over its decision to stop advertising on Channel 14.
Strauss Group last month ceased running advertisements on the network after a panelist called for the release of Yigal Amir, the Jewish extremist who assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Channel 14 swiftly disavowed the remarks and dismissed Ari Shama, but Strauss, citing “repeated hurtful comments on the channel’s programs” said it would pull its ads.
The move prompted calls for a boycott of Strauss by supporters of Channel 14, including the network’s Yinon Magal, host of the popular “The Patriots” program on which Shamai made the comments, who accused the food company of “declaring war” against it.
According to reports, Strauss assigned security to Ofra Strauss after threats were made against her, with the Kan public broadcaster saying these included letters sent to her home and the firm’s offices, phone calls and anonymous messages.
A Strauss spokesperson would not confirm the reports or say if a police complaint was filed, responding that “we do not address matters of security at the company.”
Despite the boycott calls, there has yet to be any signs of impact on Strauss’s bottom line, with the Marker business daily reporting Tuesday that the company has maintained its share of the food and beverage market, with 12.2 percent of total sales.
Citing internal Strauss documents, the newspaper said Strauss sales have even edged up slightly in some key areas over the past four weeks, such as milk, which it sold 35.5% of the total, though it was down a bit in some other categories.
Retailers quoted in the report said they have not seen any impact from the boycott calls.
Besides Strauss, other companies have stopped advertising on Channel 14 in protest of Shamai’s comments, which came during a panel discussion on a recent High Court ruling delaying the implementation of a law seen as specifically benefiting an associate of Shas party chair Aryeh Deri.
“I am happy to hear one statement — that the High Court of Justice and Supreme Court are against personal laws. If that is so, then the time has come to release the assassin Yigal Amir because there are personal laws against him,” Shamai said, receiving pushback from the other panelists but applause from the show’s studio audience. “We’re not getting into this,” replied Magal, the host.
Shamai was likely referring to a law passed in 2001, colloquially called “the Yigal Amir Law,” which bars parole boards from pardoning or commuting the sentence of a prisoner convicted of murdering a prime minister for political reasons.
Shamai’s comments came during his first appearance on Channel 14 following a five-month suspension he had received for saying that protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul were the offspring of Jews who lived in the Warsaw Ghetto during the ghetto uprising but refused to fight the Nazis.
During radio interviews following his latest dismissal, Shamai expressed no remorse for his comments.
Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by Amir, an extremist Jew who opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords under which Israel was transferring West Bank territory to Palestinian control. He claimed religious legitimacy for the murder, and has said he was prompted to kill Rabin by the 1992 election results that brought the Labor leader to power and encouraged to do so by the massacre of 29 Palestinians by Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein in Hebron in 1994.
Amir shot Rabin to death at the end of a mass peace rally in Tel Aviv that was called to highlight opposition to violence and to showcase public support for Rabin’s efforts to negotiate with the Palestinians.
