Netanyahu demands apology as Herzog says he didn’t call settlers ‘virus’

Opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog refused to back down Monday on his use of a contentious term when speaking about a bill that would legalize unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded he apologize for his comments.

The spat was triggered after Herzog, during an interview with Army Radio, said that an ongoing legal saga surrounding a key outpost was a “virus” that endangers Israeli democracy.

It was initially unclear from his statement whether Herzog was referring to the settlers, the outpost, the larger settlement enterprise or the legislative effort as a virus, in part because his interviewer talked over Herzog when he quoted a verse from the Ethics of Our Fathers (Pirkei Avot), “… were it not for the fear of its authority, a man would swallow his neighbor alive,” which refers to the chaos that ensues when the rule of law is absent.

His comments drew an almost immediate backlash. Later, Herzog specified he had been referring to the government’s legislative battle over the outpost with the High Court.

Herzog’s voice was the latest in a string of condemnations against the bill, which aims to stave off a demolition order against the Amona outpost and other illegal settlements, since a panel of ministers gave it a green light Sunday.

His use of the term “virus,” though, raised hackles in a country sensitized to the use of medical terms to demonize others, due to its echoes of Nazi propaganda about Jews.

“I can’t believe that Herzog used the phrase ‘virus’ in relation to the settlers,” Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page. “They are flesh of our flesh, they serve in the IDF, contribute to the state. Boujie, apologize immediately,” he added using Herzog’s nickname.

During a weekly meeting in the Knesset of the Zionist Union faction, Herzog responded by insisting his comments referred to the so-called Regulation Bill, not the settlers themselves. He also claimed he has become Netanyahu’s “new target for incitement and hatred.” The prime minister’s claim that he had term the settlers a virus, was a false accusation, Herzg said.

“Netanyahu, this time it won’t work,” Herzog said at the start of the meeting. “The Regulation Bill is the virus, a dangerous virus to the legal and democratic system.”

Herzog added that while he “feels the pain” of the Amona residents, the court order must stand.

In a tweet, Herzog added that “the settlers are my brothers and I will care for them more than you lie to them.”

The storm was sparked Monday morning when Herzog went on Army Radio to slam the bill, which is also opposed by Netanyahu and the attorney general.

“I understand the pain of the families [but] you were given two years to evacuate. Look at what this virus is doing to Israel and how dangerous it is to our democracy,” Herzog said. He then quoted the verse from the Ethics of Our Fathers.

https://soundcloud.com/glz-radio/ih3

In May 2012 the-then MK Miri Regev apologized after she called Sudanese asylum-seekers in Israel “a cancer in our body” during a speech.

Regev, of the Likud party, said her statement was misconstrued after she come under fire for the comment, which some people criticized as being similar to the types of accusations that were made about Jews during the Holocaust. She explained that she was talking about the phenomenon of illegal migration and not about the migrants themselves.

The Regulation Bill is not yet law, but the nod of support from the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday means it is on its way toward becoming a government-sponsored bill, a status that would put significant pressure on the coalition’s majority in the Knesset to help advance it into law.

The legislation, proposed by the nationalist-Orthodox Jewish Home party, is designed to avert the court-ordered demolition of the Amona outpost. It was previously deemed unconstitutional and a likely violation of international law by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who told the government there may not be legal grounds on which to defend it when it faces an all-but-certain appeal to the High Court of Justice.

In 2014, the High Court of Justice ruled that the Amona outpost, which lies several kilometers east of Ramallah, was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished by December 25 of this year. The decision followed over a decade of delays and appeals by the state, the Palestinians from a nearby village and the residents of Amona.

The impending evacuation could threaten to destabilize Netanyahu’s strongly right-wing coalition, which relies heavily on the pro-settlement right.