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Rhetoric of hate in Israel
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Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Reuters
JERUSALEM (November 27, 1997 11:17 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -
Posters depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Arab
headdress under the slogan "The Liar" appeared in Jerusalem on Thursday,
recalling a right-wing hate campaign that preceded the November 1995
killing of Yitzhak Rabin.
It was the first sign of right-wing street opposition to the prospect
that Netanyahu, under pressure from the United States, would get cabinet
approval -- perhaps as early as Sunday -- to hand over more West Bank
land to Palestinian self-rule.
A Reuters television camera captured an angry Israeli tearing away at a
row of posters of the prime minister signed in the name of a far-right
Israeli movement known in Hebrew as Hazit Haraayon, the "Idea Front."
"This could bring about violence," one man said when he saw a billboard
filled with black-and-white photo posters showing Netanyahu in a coat
and tie with a red Arab keffiyeh, or headdress, printed on his head and
"The Liar!!!" written in black across the top.
Netanyahu's Likud Party issued a statement denouncing the posters,
ascribing them to a handful of extremists who, craving publicity, engage
primarily in "incitement and provocation."
Far-right political activist Noam Federman said friends of his in the
movement hung the posters in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
"Netanyahu only two, three weeks ago decided, 'I will not do any more
withdrawals' ... and today he lies ... So what's the difference between
him and Rabin?" Federman asked, insisting he was not part of the poster
initiative.
Yigal Amir, a Jew, shot Rabin dead two years ago this month to try to
stop him from carrying out land-for-peace deals with Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat. Immediately after the assassination, Rabin's
widow, Leah, accused Netanyahu, then the opposition leader, of creating
a climate for the murder by leading protests at which Rabin was called a
"traitor" and "murderer" and depicted in posters in a keffiyeh.
Hard-liners in Netanyahu's own government began threatening this week to
topple the Israeli leader should he go through with plans to give
Palestinians self-rule in the West Bank in keeping with Israel's peace
promises.
Netanyahu's government, formed after his election in 1996, is made up
largely of Jewish religious and right-wing parties vehemently opposed to
ceding any of the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the
1967 Middle East war.
Rabbi Benyamin Elon, a member of the far-right Moledet Party in
parliament, said he understood the deep-rooted feelings of many in
Israel but decried the personal nature of the attacks, saying: "It
begins with 'liar' and ends in other things."
Aharon Domb, spokesman for Jewish settlers of the West Bank and Gaza,
announced that on Saturday night, right-wingers would protest outside
Netanyahu's Jerusalem house for the first time since the election 18
months ago.
Domb said he expected many hundreds to take part in the demonstration
against any further West Bank pullouts under the slogan: "Prime
minister, don't surrender to the American pressure."
Netanyahu has declined to say how much land he is prepared to give up
but Palestinians have rejected the reported planned handover of 6 to 8
percent of West Bank land under Israeli control as "insufficient and not
serious."
The Israeli leader has made any handover conditional on Palestinians
embracing his proposal to accelerate talks on a final peace accord and
meeting his demands for a systematic crackdown on Muslim militants.
Israel Radio reported Thursday that even if his cabinet approved the
land transfer in principle at a meeting Sunday, the handover would not
be carried out until March or April.
By Howard Goller, Reuters
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