PM Decries Leftist Harassment of Soldiers on Gaza Border

The phenomenon of leftists who are harassing IDF soldiers at the Gaza border is “angering and absurd,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in response to footage that was broadcast Tuesday night. “These soldiers are defending Israel from attacks and terror, and the leftists call them terrorists,” Netanyahu said. “They don’t call Hamas terrorists, even though Hamas says straightforwardly that it wants to destroy Israel – including the leftist protesters themselves.”

The footage, broadcast on Channel 20, showed Israeli leftists harassing soldiers stationed at the Gaza border fence, with one protester filming soldiers and calling them “terrorists” and “murderers. How does it feel to be part of a terror army that murders innocent civilians? How many people did you kill today? Did you kill them like you did on Friday,” the leftist activist said, referring to the ten Hamas terrorists who were killed in mass rioting over the weekend.

Soldiers are seen mostly ignoring the activist, with one soldier repeatedly asking her to leave, and brandishing orders declaring the area a closed military zone. In response, the activist continues to call the soldier a terrorist, and ignores demands to leave. One soldier is seen responding, saying “you think I am a terrorist?,” and the activist responds by saying that the soldier was “brainwashed to be part of a terrorist army that kills civilians.”

Legal experts said that other than the fact that the activist violated a closed military zone, there was actually no law that would prevent her from parading around and spouting vitriol at soldiers. Attorney Yoram Sheftel said that he would urge the Knesset to pass more stringent laws that would include soldiers in the category of public service workers, to whom laws against public harassment apply.

“Each and every day, and especially now, we all realize the important contribution made by IDF soldiers to the security of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I am proud of our soldiers, and together with the ministers in my government I give them my full support, so they can carry out their holy work of defending Israelis.”