Kulanu members to visit Rivlin in show of support
Move follows Friday rally outside President's Residence after head of state is targeted by far-right criticism
Kulanu’s ministers and MKs will visit President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday as a show of support as he fends off vociferous right-wing criticism.
Kulanu faction chairman MK Roee Volkman said on Saturday evening that “the president is not an issue of right or left. The institution of the president is above any internal disagreement. Kulanu… is coming to strengthen the president and to tell him we cherish his actions to unify the nation.”
The meeting was initiated by party head Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, according to a Saturday report in the Ma’ariv news site.
Kulanu’s visit marks the first such dramatic show of support by a coalition party. It follows a gathering of support Friday evening outside the President’s Residence.
Rivlin came under fire from the right for his comment that the terrorists who torched the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma, killing 18-month-old Ali and his father Saad, “came from among my people.”
They criticized the president’s choice of words, saying it implicated the entire nation in the crime. Some online commenters threatened physical violence against the president.
The perpetrators of the firebombing have yet to be caught, but the security services have said they are believed to be Jewish extremists.
Rivlin greeted the gathered supporters on Friday evening and thanked them for their efforts to spread a message of unity.
“We have come together today, from different different schools of thought, all together, even if we sometimes have differences of opinion,” Rivlin said at the event.
“Disagreements will always occur between us, but we all approach them wanting the best for each and every one of us, for the whole people. I am excited and moved by this meeting,” Rivlin said.
Meanwhile, settler leader Daniella Weiss, a right wing activist, dismissed the online threats in an interview aired Friday on Channel 1.
“You can pass a message to Rubi Rivlin: ‘You can sleep well at night.’ No one is thinking of killing him. He’s not nearly important enough to deserve it,” she said.
— Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.