Teacher who threw apple at Netanyahu to face disciplinary hearing

Brinish Zehava Beck, a teacher and social activist who threw an apple at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an election rally in Netanya last week and compared him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler during a follow-up television interview, is to face a disciplinary hearing, Education Minister Rafi Peretz (Jewish Home) said Tuesday.

“We will not accept violence in the education system, not by students and all the more so not by teachers who should set an example,” Peretz said. “The teacher who threw an apple at the prime minister, and compared him on live television to ‘Hitler,’ crossed a red line, both verbally and physically… I have instructed the professional echelons at the ministry to summon her for a hearing at the earliest possible opportunity.” 

In an interview with Channel 12 on Monday, Beck said she had thrown the apple, which did not hit the prime minister, because she had been shocked by his statements at the rally Saturday night. 

“I was at the conference and I was shocked, it was my first time at a conference featuring people who are supposed to lead us and set an example. All they did there was lead a campaign of incitement,” she said.

“Society in Israel is in a state of internal rift,” she continued. “What shocked me at this conference was the fact that I saw people who are supposed to lead us and set an example for us inciting …it reminded me of Hitler. These are my feelings.”