Netanyahu Accuses Mandelblit of Not Taking Death Threats Seriously

YERUSHALAYIM
netanyahu death threat
(Caricature of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a protest demonstration outside his residence in Yerushalayim. Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ has sent a letter to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in which he complains that the latter is not taking seriously threats of harm being made against him and his family, a charge Mandelblit denied.

“Your inaction in the face of the calls to murder me and my family…are nothing less than scandalously allowing the spilling of our blood,” Netanyahu writes in the letter, according to Ynet.

Charging a double standard, the prime minister said: “We’ve seen the lighting speed in which you deal with every complaint of supposed harm, even the most minimal, to your associates or people in your office.”

Referring to specific threats of violence against his wife: “I do not remember in the public discourse against women and public figures in Israel a threat of such a degrading…nature, not since the establishment of the state. The silence of most women’s and human rights organizations and of many representatives and public servants cries to heaven,” Netanyahu wrote.

“Your silence and inaction is the same, and I want to hope that unlike your previous responses, this time you will take the appropriate response and that there will be no more of these tortuous bureaucratic letters of rejection which cry out to heaven with their one-sidedness, inaction, and selective enforcement,” Netanyahu added.

In a letter of reply, Mandelblit said “there is no basis for your claims as if someone is belittling the complaints in relation to you or any of your family members.”

He cited 29 investigations opened in recent months for alleged threats and incitement against the Netanyahus, and assured him that law enforcement and legal officials take any such threats seriously.

In an apparent swipe at Netanyahu’s own alleged contribution to the generally overheated atmosphere, Mandelblit wrote that “public leaders also have a central role and responsibility in calming the winds.”

Yesh Atid-Telem MK Moshe Yaalon chimed in that Netanyahu’s complaint as baseless and accused him of “incitement” against the attorney general.

 

“Your trick is transparent: You know the Shin Bet is responsible for your security and [if there’s] any slight suspicion that you’re threatened, all the necessary steps are taken. There is no one more protected than you in Israel,” Yaalon tweeted.

Yaalon added: “Leave the attorney general alone [and] stop playing the victim,” while again calling on him to resign due to the corruption charges against him.

Meanwhile, police said they were questioning a person suspected of posting online comments about Mrs. Netanyahu that “could amount to harassment.”

It was not clear whether the postings were the same ones Netanyahu referred to in his letter.

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