Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Photo:

i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening reacted to online threats to his life saying that “all lines are being crossed” and urging law enforcement to act against incitement.

Netanyahu’s comments on his way back to Israel from his trip to France come in response to a Facebook post by a former air force pilot and anti-Netanyahu protest figure Ze’ev Raz. In his Friday post, that came prior to another large-scale protest against the judicial reform, he wrote that if a leader acts “in a dictatorial way, there’s an obligation to kill them.”

If a prime minister stands up and assumes dictatorial powers for himself, he is a dead man, it’s as simple as that,” Raz added without mentioning Netanyahu’s name.

The post sparked online backlash and was later deleted. In a statement issued late Saturday, police said they had opened an investigation on “suspicion of incitement and threats.” Netanyahu condemned the threats as a “real danger to democracy.”

“In recent weeks we have witnessed a growing wave of incitement. Lines are being crossed every day, and it seemed like every boundary had already been crossed in threats on elected officials and on me. But clearly not, because today we heard and saw a clear threat to murder the prime minister of Israel,” he said.

“I expect the law enforcement and security officials who spoke clearly and sharply during the time of the previous government about much less serious phenomena to come out with at least the same severity and clarity against this horrifying phenomenon. And I also expect the leaders of the opposition to speak with the same firmness and the same intensity as I spoke against statements that were heard against them,” the prime minister stressed.

ההסתה נגד ראש הממשלה נתניהו שוברת שיאים של טירוף. אנחנו מזועזעים מקריאתו של זאב רז לרצוח את ראש הממשלה נתניהו ואת שרי הממשלה. שב״כ והמשטרה חייבים לפעול מייד כדי לעצור אותו ואת יתר המסיתים נגד ראש הממשלה נתניהו. pic.twitter.com/jm91PRAkfi

— הליכוד (@Likud_Party) February 4, 2023

The head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency Ronan Bar spoke with the police commissioner on Saturday evening about the “increase in violent and inciting discourse against elected officials in general and the prime minister in particular.”

“It was agreed that a policy of zero tolerance of the law enforcement system will be adopted towards those who incite violence or call for harm to individuals and elected officials, as well as for those who call for harm to demonstrators,” the agency’s statement said, adding that the right to demonstrate and protest is legal but it is necessary to “clarify that calls for harm and violence are outside the legitimate discourse.”

Later on Sunday, Raz was brought in for questioning to the police station.