Israeli man gets community service for threatening Netanyahu on Twitter haaretz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from haaretz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
0 shares
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on April 21, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The State Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment Sunday against an Israeli man who posted posts on Facebook in which he called for the death of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ofer Kopelman, 57, was charged with three counts of incitement to violence over three Facebook posts from May and June of last year.
In the first post, Kopelman wrote, “That oppressor Bibi! He’s once again playing with our heads. Inventing a second wave [of the pandemic] in order to keep us stuck at home. Then he will quietly carry out annexation.” Ironically, the suspect is a resident of the Alfei Menashe settlement.
The suspect was to be brought Thursday for a remand hearing at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court.
Police said in the statement that they “view with severity any suspected criminal offense against public figures.”
Police added that they were “working to distance the suspects involved in such crimes from the public.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surrounded by security as he enters his car, after an unofficial surprise visit in Givatayim, near Tel Aviv on November 9, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The development comes amid a recent crackdown on online threats against the prime minister.
Last month, the Ashdod Magistrate’s Court convicted a Beersheba man who threatened Netanyahu on social media. In June, Asher Ben Dor wrote on Twitter, “Anyone know about preparations to assassinate the prime minister? It seems the time has come, it seems to be that it has become unbearable.”