Israeli police are investigating two letters received by the family of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett within a period of less than 48 hours. The prime minister’s wife and one of the children were the recipients of two envelopes that contained threats and firearm ammunition.
The first letter was sent on Tuesday (26) and prompted the opening of the investigation. The details of the contents and the suspicions of the authorities are being kept under wraps, but the Israeli press reported that the first envelope would have been sent to the former workplace of Gilat Bennett, the prime minister’s wife.
According to an anonymous source interviewed by the Haaretz newspaper, the letter mentioned Yoni Bennett, 16, the couple’s eldest son, and contained phrases such as “we will get you”. The fact that the envelope contained ammunition would have led authorities to attach greater weight to this investigation compared to the threats traditionally made to Bennett via social media.
This Thursday (28), it was Yoni’s turn to receive threats. The contents of the letter were not publicly disclosed, but according to Haaretz, the envelope also contained a firearm cartridge. The teenager had published a text on his Instagram profile on Tuesday in which he defended his father from criticism and referred to the authors of the first threat as “people who have been brainwashed”.
“A political divergence, no matter how deep, should not evolve into violence, banditry and death threats,” the prime minister said in a statement. “We have to do everything, as leaders and as citizens who care about our future and the future of the children of this country, so that such phenomena simply do not exist.”
On Wednesday (27), the eve of the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust – celebrated this Thursday -, Bennett raised the subject again during a speech at Yad Vashem, considered the official memorial of the victims of the massacre promoted by the Nazi regime.
“Even during the darkest chapter of Jewish history, during the inferno of extermination of our people, the left and the right have not found a way to work together,” he said. “My brothers and sisters, we cannot allow the same dangerous gene of factionalism to dismantle Israel from within.”
The prime minister has received expressions of solidarity from political allies, such as Chancellor Yair Lapid – a future prime minister under the terms of the coalition formed to govern the country – who said the episode was a “sad reminder” of what the incitement could do. to tease.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz – who formed the coalition with former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – also condemned the episode, referring to the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a religious extremist in Tel Aviv.
“In the past, incitement and violence have led to political assassinations. One bullet in an envelope can turn into three bullets fired from a gun,” Gantz wrote, adding that “unity and resilience” must be the basis of power.
The representative of the Israeli far-right Bezalel Smotrich, in turn, relativized the weight of the threats and insinuated that they might not be true. “There are lunatics on both sides, but this has nothing to do with the harsh and poignant political and public criticism of the horrible acts that Bennett and his associates are doing,” he argued.
According to the extremist, known for openly racist, homophobic, xenophobic and segregating statements, the prime minister could be using the episode to “improve his public position and delegitimize the right and its protests”.
According to Haaretz, a resident of southern Israel was sentenced to five months in prison in November 2021 for directly threatening the prime minister and a further three months for threats aimed at Bennett’s family.
