Otzma Yehudit head to sue left-wing lawmaker for purported Hitler comparison

Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party, says he plans to sue left-wing lawmaker Stav Shaffir for, in his words, comparing him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Shaffir and Ben Gvir are already in the middle of a libel suit filed by Ben Gvir over her comments in the last election campaign earlier this year comparing Otzma Yehudit to the Nazis.

In an interview this morning on Army Radio, Shaffir criticized the station for including Ben Gvir among the politicians it interviews. The talk show host, Rino Tzror, lashed Shaffir for the comment, saying his job was to encourage free speech from all sides, not to stifle it.

When a reporter, Ynet’s Ran Boker, posts about the exchange on Twitter this morning, Shaffir replies in a tweet: “Dear Ran, not to compare, God forbid — but would you let Hitler come on your broadcast? Free speech, yes — incitement to racism, no. Free speech yes, damaging our democracy — no. No fear.”

Though she prefaced her question with “not to compare,” Ben Gvir decides to take umbrage anyway — it’s campaign season, after all — and says he will file a second slander suit against Shaffir demanding NIS 500,000 ($143,000) in damages.

He accuses Shaffir of “incitement and cheapening the Holocaust out of atrocious ignorance.”

Democratic Camp says in response: “The days of being afraid are over. We’re not afraid to fight the inciting, backward, racist Kahanists.”