United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus on Monday sparked furor after he was asked in the Knesset Education Committee if he believes police should shoot protesters in the legs if they are blocking roads, to which he responded that they should “start with” Democrats party MK Naama Lazimi.
At the meeting, Yesh Atid MK Adi Azuz asked Pindrus, who has in the past expressed support for police to open fire on anti-government protesters who block roads, if he was in favor of police taking such action against his party leader, Yitzhak Goldknopf.
The UTJ chairman led last week’s Haredi anti-draft protest, during which thousands of ultra-Orthodox men blocked Route 1 for several hours, with the senior Haredi MK at the front of the pack in his motorcade.
Responding to the question, Pindrus, smiling, said: “Sure, but start with Naama Lazimi.”
Lazimi is a prominent figure among the anti-government protest movement and has participated in the blocking of roads at several demonstrations over the past few years. She has also been physically roughed up and verbally accosted by police officers at a number of protests, in what she has said amounts to assault and part of a larger police effort to suppress democracy.
Responding to Pindrus’s comments, Lazimi said it was a “full-on endorsement of bloodshed.”
“I no longer have words to describe what they’ve done to the Knesset,” she said in a post on X. “Let me be clear, this is just the preview of what is to come and it’s on us to kick them out of our lives and rebuild a normal society.”
“You won’t scare me and you won’t threaten me,” she said.
Lazimi, who has faced multiple threats and incitement, filed a police complaint against Pindrus, according to Hebrew media.
Also responding, Democrats chairman Yair Golan said: “Pindrus, Naama Lazimi will continue to stand on her feet, and we will stand behind her until we see you fall from power.”
Lazimi “fought and protested with her body alongside the families of the hostages and survivors of captivity, and has faced police violence, he continued in a post on X. “To call for her to ‘be shot in the legs’ is incitement to violence. It must not be allowed to pass in silence.”
“In the next government, we will ensure that those who incite to violence bear responsibility. The era of immunity will end,” he said.
Going further, fellow Democrats MK Gilad Kariv called Pindrus a “violent and dangerous thug, who has “spilled the blood of my colleague,” and the “blood of all opposition Knesset members.”
Kariv called on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into Pindrus for incitement, saying he has “no expectations” of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who he said “has abandoned opposition Knesset members in the face of violent incidents” for failing to reprimand coalition lawmakers who have threatened opposition figures in the past.
Source:
www.timesofisrael.com
