Netanyahu files complaint against another social media user over death threats

Police complaint is the third lodged recently by PM, who says ‘incitement has crossed a red line’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and his wife Sara address supporters at the Likud party campaign headquarters in the coastal city of Tel Aviv early on March 3, 2020, after polls officially closed. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and his wife Sara address supporters at the Likud party campaign headquarters in the coastal city of Tel Aviv early on March 3, 2020, after polls officially closed. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday filed a police complaint against a social media user over threats to murder him and his wife, the third such complaint he has filed in recent weeks.

“Lately, the incitement against the prime minister and his family has crossed a red line,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The statement decried “many explicit calls to murder [Netanyahu] and his family members, some of which are clearly associated with the far-left.

“The prime minister expects determined action by police and for justice for those responsible,” it said.

There were no immediate details on the identity of the alleged offender or what the posts said.

(From L-R) Avner, Sara, Benjamin and Yair Netanyahu tour the Golan Heights on April 23, 2019. (PMO)

A man was arrested last week for threatening Netanyahu in a social media post, the Israel Police said at the time. The suspect, a 21-year-old resident of the north of the country, was arrested by the cyber unit of the police’s Lahav 433 national crime squad, the statement said.

“A few days ago I filed a complaint with the police about a series of threats to murder me and my family. Today, unfortunately, I had to file another complaint against a man detailing how he intended to murder me and my family,” Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post last week. “When will the media and the left, who do not stop for a moment trying to topple a right-wing prime minister, finally condemn the unruly and incessant incitement against me and my family?”

Screen capture from video of left-wing activist Haim Shadmi. (YouTube)

Last month, left-wing activist Haim Shadmi was called in for questioning under caution by police for allegedly threatening Yair Netanyahu. Shadmi was summoned to the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit, following complaints filed by the prime minister and his son.

Also last month, a 39-year-old Tel Aviv man, Michael Ronen Agmon, was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against the prime minister. During a remand hearing, police presented the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court with a number of posts published on Facebook by Agmon, including one in which he said Netanyahu needed to be “neutralized” and another that had a picture of the premier surrounded by skulls and the phrase “Foe of Israel.”

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