Labor chief: Otzma Yehudit MK should face incitement charges

Labor party chief Merav Michaeli says Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel should face charges for incitement to violence after he expressed satisfaction with settlers’ violent rampage against Palestinians in a West Bank village yesterday.

Michaeli says Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara should order a probe of Fogel and potentially file charges.

In a letter to the attorney general, Michaeli says Fogel’s comments “are extraordinarily grave… The distance between [such comments] and another pogrom against innocents is even shorter than one might expect.”

Fogel — the chairman of the Knesset’s National Security Committee — was unequivocal in his support for the riots that came in response to a terror attack earlier in the day, saying it was time to “take the gloves off.”

“Yesterday, a terrorist came from Huwara. A closed, burnt Huwara — that’s what I want to see. That’s the only way to achieve deterrence. After a murder like yesterday’s, we need burning villages when the IDF doesn’t act,” Fogel said.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has also said Fogel should face criminal consequences for his statements.