Jewish Home MK says Haaretz ‘incites’ against him

Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich files a complaint of incitement against the Haaretz newspaper, Army Radio reports, after a writer described in an op-ed published this morning how he would slap the MK in the face.

The op-ed in question was written by Nissan Shor, a columnist whose pieces often convey social criticism in satirical form. In a piece lamenting the apparent weakness of the Israeli left, Shor writes:

In my dreams we establish a militia. A gang of bespectacled Ashkenazis with whiskey bottles and baseball bats, going out on the streets and looking for Bentzi Gopshtain and members of the Lehava organization in order to teach them a lesson. After we finish with them, and they escape limping and bleeding, we tackle [Beitar Jerusalem fan group] La Familia and also chase the psychopathic grandson of [Rabbi Meir] Kahane, breaking apart all the racists. Screwing the nationalistic hooligans, finishing off the Jewish terrorists. And Bezalel Smotrich will also receive a slap or two.

Smotrich has in the past said he is “proud to be homophobic” and, speaking at a discussion on a bill that would allow execution of convicted terrorists, said he was “willing to be the hangman.”

Haaretz, according to Army Radio, did not respond to the complaint.

The Times of Israel can only hope it will not be the target of a similar complaint, now that it reproduced the offending paragraph.