Opposition MK calls for Ra’anana Likud boss to be probed for incitement to violence

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv calls on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into the head of the Likud’s Ra’anana branch on suspicion of incitement to violence, after the Likud boss made threatening remarks to “the left” following an attack by a right-wing mob on a joint Israeli-Palestinian Remembrance Day ceremony in the city last night.

Writing to the attorney general, Kariv points out that Racheli Ben Ari Sakat, the head of the Likud branch in Ra’anana, had called on people to demonstrate outside the joint Remembrance Day ceremony, and then issued threats to those on the political left afterwards, saying the riot was just “the opening shot” and that “we will come out in droves to protest.”

Kariv says it is “unacceptable” that a leading figure in the city “acts in a manner that could incite violence and gives a tailwind for serious acts against innocent citizens,” adding that her “support for [the violence] after the fact” meant that a criminal investigation must be opened.

Three people were arrested by police during the riot, in which four police officers and three participants in the event were lightly injured.

“To the left in Ra’anana, I announce that this is only the opening shot, don’t try us,” wrote Ben Ari Sakat in a post on Facebook after the riot.

“Whoever comes from outside Ra’anana, get away from here… And those in Ra’anana, see, you have been warned. We will not be silent anymore. We will come out in droves against any activity that does sanctify those who fell in Israel’s wars and enemy action.”