MKs: Film director’s remarks should be probed

Rotem, Eldad's demand follows call by Israel Prize winner Judd Ne’eman for civil war between Left and settlers.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Rotem 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post))
Rotem 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post))
MKs David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu) and Arye Eldad (National Union) called for film director Yehuda “Judd” Ne’eman to be investigated for incitement on Thursday.
Ne’eman made headlines on Wednesday after saying in a Army Israel radio interview: “What we need here is a war between settlers and the Left to solve the problems in Israel. There’s no other way.”
Eldad called for the police to investigate Ne’eman, who won the Israel Prize for cinema in 2009, for incitement and sedition.
“I have no doubt that if the police investigated rabbis who wrote letters sponsoring a book of Halacha, we cannot allow speech like Judd Ne’eman’s to be defined only as politically biased,” the National Union MK said.
“Whoever calls for use of weapons against the democratic majority is closer to fascism and neo-Nazism than those who represent the will of the majority,” Eldad added, in response to Ne’eman calling the Israeli Right fascists. “Ne’eman is calling for dictatorship like Stalin’s and Pol Pot’s, who paved their way to the top over the bodies of the opposition.”
Rotem asked Deputy State Attorney Shai Nitzan to investigate Ne’eman for sedition and incitement to violence.
Earlier this week, Ne’eman, along with 31 other intellectuals, signed a letter calling for Rotem to resign from his position as chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.