Israel, FBI probe ‘Nazi’ videos of PM, president

Police are working with the FBI on the investigation of recent videos portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Supreme Court President Miriam Naor as Nazis, Channel 2 news reported Wednesday.

The creator of the videos is said to be an American, and his actions might not be prosecutable.

In Israel the videos would be considered incitement and a punishable offense. In the US, however, they may fall under legitimate freedom of speech.

The clips feature Rivlin, Netanyahu and Naor in SS uniforms, speaking in what sounds like German. “I am a self-hating, hypocritical president,” the Hebrew subtitles on the video of Rivlin read. “When Jews are murdered, it doesn’t really interest me… I am a Nazi Jew-hater.”

Netanyahu, with a Hitler mustache, is dubbed saying, “Welcome to the concentration camp of Israel… We are deathly afraid of Muslims. Jewish blood is not worth much.”

Naor too greets the “citizens of the Israel concentration camp” and says the Supreme Court is “the true ruler” of the nation.

The man behind the videos, a New York resident, told Ynet no one had informed him that he was being investigated. He admitted to uploading the videos, as well as a photo of Rivlin in a keffiyeh. He also confessed to photoshopping photos last year of then-finance minister Yair Lapid, Rivlin, and then-justice minister Tzipi Livni as Nazis.

“No one told me they were going to investigate me. There is no crime here,” he said. “I made these videos and the picture of Rivlin in a kaffiyeh and the Hamas symbol — the police know this.”

The suspect said he was “just a secular guy who is sick of Jews being left to their fate.

“Some Muslim was burned, probably a future terrorist, so there’s a lot of noise. And our president blames all the Jews for the crime. It’s illogical. Where was the president when Jews were being murdered every Monday and Thursday?” he said.