MK claims libel over report he said settlers’ blood worth more than that of Oct 7 dead

Controversial right-wing MK Simcha Rothman has threatened to sue Channel 12 news for defamation, after it reported that he had indicated during a recent Knesset hearing that he believed the lives of settlers killed in a terror attack earlier this year were worth more than those of Israelis killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern communities.

The network had reported that at a meeting earlier this week of the Knesset panel he chairs, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Rothman said: “The blood of the brothers Hallel and Yagel, may their memory be a blessing, who were murdered in Huwara, is redder than the blood of those murdered on October 7.”

Rothman angrily denied the Channel 12 report, calling it “false, inflammatory libel.”

Channel 12 did not provide context for Rothman’s alleged quote, while saying his comment “shocked” those present, with some demanding he retract his words, which he then did.

In his denial of the report, Rothman said: “To remove any doubt, I did not say or hint that one person’s blood is redder than another’s, in any way or form, not in closed discussions or open discussions. It is a total lie.”