Far-right activists celebrate Yossi Sarid’s death
As others pay respects, Bentzi Gopstein and Michael Ben Ari call deceased former politician ‘evil,’ ‘Hellenist’
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Two far-right Israeli leaders expressed joy at the death of former left-wing politician and journalist Yossi Sarid from an apparent cardiac problem Friday. Sarid was laid to rest Sunday afternoon at the cemetery in Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha.
Bentzi Gopstein, founder of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization, posted a tweet on Saturday evening celebrating Sarid’s death. “When the wicked perish, there is joy,” the tweet began, using a quote from the Book of Proverbs. It continued: “Rabbi Kahane would say about Yossi Sarid, ‘May his name be blotted out.’ A good week has begun.”
Gopstein was referring to his mentor, the slain Israeli-American far-right activist Meir Kahane, whose anti-Arab Kach party was banned from the Knesset in 1988 for racism and undemocratic behavior. Kahane, who advocated for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel, has become the ideological godfather of the Israeli far-right.
The Twitter name that Gopstein goes by, @kahane_zadak, means “Kahane was right” and is a rallying cry for Israeli extremists wanting to continue the late rabbi’s legacy.
באבוד רשעים רינה. על יוסי שריד הקפיד הרב כהנא להוסיף ימח שמו. שבוע טוב התחיל.
— בנצי גופשטיין ???? (@kahane_zadak) December 5, 2015
In an op-ed on the national-religious site Srugim, the former Knesset member Michael Ben Ari, also a follower of Kahane, wrote an op-ed about Sarid titled, “On the death of a Hellenist,” referring to Jews who adopted Greek culture during the Second Temple period.
“Whoever is looking for the modern Hellenist should look at the character of Sarid,” Ben Ari wrote. “A fluent speaker of Hebrew, and simultaneously full of deep hatred for everything that we hold sacred.”
Ben Ari wrote that he shared “no joy in the death of a man,” but that Sarid was a symbol of the “enemies of Judaism” who “rejoiced in our defeat.” He finished the column with another quote from Proverbs: “The name of the wicked will rot.”
The comments by the far-right activists came as both political allies and ideological opponents of the late Sarid mourned the former Meretz party chairman.
“Yossi Sarid was a unique voice in Israeli politics, an opinionated, sharp man,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the left-wing former public official on Saturday.
“Although we differed on many issues, I appreciated his loyalty to his path, his broad education and the meticulous Hebrew expressed in his speech and writings. He will be remembered also for being a prominent parliamentarian, a longtime member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and an education minister who sought to advance the education system in Israel.”
President Reuven Rivlin, who served as an MK with the right-wing Likud party during Sarid’s tenure as head of Meretz, called the deceased parliamentarian a “tough political opponent, challenging and loyal to his views.” Sarid, Rivlin added, was “one of the greatest politicians of the State of Israel.”
Last week, a member of Gopstein’s Lehava group was sentenced to three years in prison for participating in a November 2014 arson attack on a Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem. Twenty-two-year-old Yitzhak Gabai was the third member of the organization convicted and sentenced for the attack.
The Times of Israel Community.