PM condemns incitement against new coalition, but says he suffers terribly too

Responding to incitement against Knesset members from the bloc of parties set to be sworn in as a government that would replace him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he “condemns all incitement and violence.” He adds immediately that “incitement against us is also rampant.”

“For a long time, there have been terrible calls against us. To murder me and my family, my wife,” he says at the opening of a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.

Continuing, he says, “In principle, it needs to be clear and consistent to all: Incitement, and violence, and incitement to violence will always be out of bounds. And yet it is important to clarify, and I do so now: Freedom of expression is not incitement. Criticism from the right cannot be treated as incitement and criticism from the left as a legitimate act of freedom of expression. That is an attempt to frame the right as something dangerous for democracy.”