Meretz files police complaint over far-right rapper's 'inciting' post

Left-wing party reacts after ‘The Shadow’ posts Facebook image depicting leftists as complicit in Palestinian terrorism

The left-wing Meretz party has filed a complaint with police against far-right Likud party member and rapper Yoav “The Shadow” Eliasi over a social media post it says incites violence.

Members of the opposition party said in the complaint to Tel Aviv District Police that Eliasi’s Wednesday Facebook post could lead to violence against left-wing Israelis.

On Wednesday Eliasi posted a picture depicting a semiautomatic rifle adorned with the word “Arabs” over a Palestinian flag, above ammunition magazines labeled with the names of the Meretz party, several prominent leftist organizations and the Haaretz newspaper.

He captioned the image with the word “Exactly!”

The post no longer appeared on his page on Thursday, but Eliasi posted a picture of the post that had been screen captured by Channel 10, saying he stood behind what he wrote and accusing Meretz of clamping down on free speech and providing “ammunition and support to the terrorists in Israel.”

The outspoken 38-year-old, who has nearly 300,000 Facebook followers, has gained notoriety for hard-line, inflammatory posts that often target Arabs and left-wing Israeli figures.

מפלגת מרצ הגישה הבוקר תלונה במשטרה נגד יואב אליאסי, הראפר הצל, בגין הסתה • @akivanovick pic.twitter.com/O4EKe0Qr9i

— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) April 20, 2017

Eliasi has previously used his social media platforms to call for the castration and organ harvesting of slain Palestinian assailants, and has compared left-wing Israelis to an AIDS epidemic.

In 2014, Eliasi was a main organizer of a rowdy counter-protest that was reportedly designed to intimidate a group of anti-war leftists protesting the Gaza war.

Last year, Eliasi joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party under the auspices of controversial party MK Oren Hazan.

Eliasi’s membership in the ruling Likud party was met with opposition from the American Jewish rights group Anti-Defamation League, President Reuven Rivlin and a number of party officials.