The Labor party has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch an investigation against the Jewish Home party for alleged incitement, following a video clip that the party produced targeting Labor candidate Yossi Yona.
The clip was produced in a way that imitates Hamas propaganda clips, complete with a green background, a Hamas TV logo and mistake-riddled Hebrew texts.
The clip includes statements attributed to Yonah, including one lauding “Zionist” soldiers who refuse to serve in the “occupied territories,” and another that says there is no difference between the Holocaust and the Palestinian “Nakba,” the “Catastrophe” when Arab states failed to destroy the renascent Jewish state in 1948.
Another quote in the clip states “as long as there is occupation, there will be terror.” Yet another says “I pray to see you expelled from your homes again,” and is directed at Jews who were expelled from Gush Katif.
At the end of the clip, the viewers are told: “It’s not Hamas! It’s Yossi Yona.”
Yona has claimed that the quotes from him were taken out of context.
Labor says that by comparing Yona to a murderous terror organization like Hamas, the Jewish Home is inciting physical attacks on Yona. They note that he took part in the Yom Kippur War and that his tank was hit multiple times by enemy fire.
“The crude linkage made between Mr. Yona and Hamas – a terror organization that has vowed to annihilate the state of Israel – especially in a period so close to Operation Protective Edge – is intended to create the false impression that Mr. Yona identifies with the Hamas organization and even encourages terror acts against the state of Israel and its citizens,” argued the party.
Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said on live television Tuesday that he will gladly show up for police questioning regarding the complaint, and claimed in his defense that he had spoken the truth.
Yona is one of several extremely radical figures in Labor’s list, which also include Merav Michaeli, who has called for Jewish mothers not to send their sons into the IDF after 40 years of “occupation,” Zohair Bahaloul, who has said he is not a Zionist, and Stav Shaffir, who has called Israel’s national anthem “racist.”
Labor is running with Tzipi Livni under the name “the Zionist Camp.” Jewish Home Knesset candidate Ronen Shoval filed a petition last week to prevent this, based on the “anti-Zionist statements” made by the party’s candidates and the existing prohibition on political parties running under names that may mislead the public.
