Liberman’s New Year video ‘encourages sexual harassment,’ say activists

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman is facing criticism by activists for releasing a video that “encourages sexual harassment.”

The spoof video is based on Sacha Baron Cohen’s segment from “Who Is America?” with Jason Spencer, which led to the Georgia lawmaker’s resignation from the State House of Representatives. An instructor who looks and sounds similar to Baron Cohen’s character, Col. Erran Morad, teaches Liberman how to defend himself against a burqa-clad “terrorist.”

The video, released ahead of Rosh Hashanah, was intended to be a New Year’s greeting.

Paralleling the Baron Cohen clip, Liberman’s instructor shows the defense minister how to detect a terrorist using a selfie stick. After first pretending to take photos of himself, he puts the stick under the long dress of a burqa-clad dummy to check for bombs.

שנה טובה לחיילי צה"ל. עם ישראל אוהב אתכם! pic.twitter.com/XwgjQ6FmA1

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) September 4, 2018

Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, condemns the video.

“Defense Minister Liberman’s choice of showing an act of sexual humiliation of Muslim women as a New Year’s greeting is perverse and distorted,” she says.

“Liberman presents the humiliation and degradation which women suffer during security checks as something funny,” she says. “Photographing under a dress is a criminal offense, but this video encourages sexual harassment and turns it into a joke.”

She says the defense minister must apologize and immediately remove the clip from his social media accounts.