Incitement against Rivlin based in his own Likud Party
Despite his indisputable credentials on the Israeli right, President Reuven Rivlin now finds himself the target of an incitement campaign from within his own Likud Party following statements against Jewish terrorism and efforts to build bridges between Israel’s Jewish and Arab societies.
In February 2015, at the height of the most recent election campaign, the Likud leadership expelled Eli Moyal, former mayor of the southern development town of Sderot, from the party. This unusual move against the veteran Likud member, ordered by associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, followed reports that Moyal had met with Zionist Camp co-chairs Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. That Moyal had been giving a lot of interviews at the time attacking Netanyahu for his performance during the 2014 Gaza war was also a factor. The ensuing media storm embarrassed Netanyahu and the Likud, and Moyal was reinstated. This seemingly trivial story, which has virtually been forgotten, along with another story from recent days prove the extent to which the Likud, Israel’s mainstream right-wing party, has cut itself off from its basic liberal values and the extent to which the senses of its leaders have been dulled.
The week of Aug. 3 was a stormy one, with terror attacks carried out by Palestinians and Jews. In the ensuing flood of hateful words, President Reuven Rivlin, flesh and blood of the Likud movement, became a central target of incitement. The trigger was his emotional, empathetic and heartfelt reaction to the burning death of a Palestinian toddler in the village of Douma in an attack allegedly committed by members of the extreme right.
“There are those among my people who chose the path of terrorism and lost their humanity,” Rivlin wrote in Arabic on his Facebook page. Social media erupted in a tidal wave of reactions, accusing Rivlin of “hating his people” and calling him a “terrorist,” an “Arab” and “president of the Islamic State.” Rivlin was also photoshopped wearing a kaffiyeh and a Nazi uniform.
What initially appeared to be an expected and easily containable response from a handful of extremists turned out to be much broader, permeating the ranks of the Likud. Shimi Tal — chairman of the party’s branch in the town of Be’er Yaakov, a veteran and a familiar figure in party circles and its institutions with access to ministers, Knesset members and the prime minister himself — wrote on his Facebook page, “I think the president should be arrested for the serious things he said, which damage the security of the state and the citizens of Israel. … The president has crossed red lines, only a mentally ill person would address world media and say ‘my people chose the path of terror.’ He should be committed, urgently.”
