Netanyahu's son becomes politically active

Yesh Atid chairman receives negative reactions from HU students, including Yair Netanyahu whose views are "just like father's."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Independence Day 2013 390 1 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Independence Day 2013 390 1
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Yesh Atid faction chairman Ofer Shelach received many negative reactions from students in the right-wing student group Lavie when he spoke at Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Wednesday night about the evils of "the occupation of the West Bank."
But one frustrated student has a more famous last name than others: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's son, Yair, who is a freshman at the university.
When Shelach told the students that he, unlike them, was old enough to remember life in Israel "before the occupation," Netanyahu heckled him "Yeah, sure, it was just like Switzerland here."
Students in the Lavie group said Netanyahu was active in the group and that even though this is his first year he had distinguished himself as a student not afraid to show initiative.
"His views are just like his father's," a student in the group said. "He can explain his views very well. He is doing good work and is well-respected."
Netanyahu also defends Israel in English. He served in Tevel, the IDF spokesman's unit branch that monitors and deals with the foreign press.
Speaking on a panel with three other MKs at the university, Shelach said that "Israel is advancing daily to the status of South Africa" and that "the occupation corrupts Israeli society, the IDF, Israeli justice, the Israeli media and the Israeli image."
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely pointed out that Shelach's party chairman Yair Lapid disagreed with him in a interview with The New York Times last month in which he said settlement construction should not be frozen ahead of peace talks and Jerusalem will not be divided.