Bennett complains of left-wing incitement as his security is beefed up

Bayit Yehudi chief calls out Zionist Union co-chairman Issac Herzog, whom he says can calm spirits if he wants to.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Picture of Naftali Bennet vandalized with Swastika and "Hitler mustache" which led to heightened security (photo credit: 0404 NEWS)
Picture of Naftali Bennet vandalized with Swastika and "Hitler mustache" which led to heightened security
(photo credit: 0404 NEWS)
Left-wing politicians are inciting to violence against the Right, Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett lamented Thursday, two days after he was assigned bodyguards due to threats to his life.
In a Facebook post accompanied by a picture of a Bayit Yehudi sign with Bennett’s face defaced with a swastika and a Hitler mustache, the minister wrote: “The Left has learned nothing from the [former prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin murder.”
Bennett described events that his security detail did not allow him to attend, including one in Haifa Wednesday night, in which they said radical left-wing activists in the hall were a danger to him, and another earlier in the week, in which his guards said there were Arabs in the auditorium of an academic institution that posed a threat.
The Bayit Yehudi chairman quoted media outlets saying he is a fascist and has blood in his hands and mentioned that MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) receives threats, as well.
Bennett also recounted a Haaretz-sponsored conference last year, in which someone from the audience punched him and people shouted “fascist” and “murderer.”
“The organizers did not denounce the occurrence – after all, it was just Left violence against the Right,” he wrote. “The violent leftists dress up as someone different each time. Sometimes they are activists for public housing, other times they are LGBT activists or organizations against the ‘occupation.’” Bennett said these activists are political, and some are members of Labor. As such, he called for Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog to take action and bring calm.
“All of their violent events are planned, documented, everything is written and everything is saved,” he added.
Still, Bennett vowed he will not change his schedule, adding: “No one will silence us.”
Meanwhile, Bennett’s wife, Gilat Bennett, wrote on her Facebook page that she has been asking for higher security for her husband for months, but no one listened to her.
“Swastikas on his face in signs all over the country, a punch in the back at the Haaretz conference last year, violent people with hatred in their eyes coming to his events, yelling inflammatory words,” she wrote. “I see their plans on Facebook. I know they aren’t innocent activists; rather, they are well-funded members of extreme left-wing organizations. I see the excitement from their violence when they ‘blow up’ his events.”
Bennett said she is afraid for her husband, and the police and security detail are not doing enough.
“I’m asking you, please leave Naftali alone,” she added.
Meretz leader Zehava Gal- On said that Bennett claiming the Left learned nothing from Rabin’s assassination is unbelievable, and that right-wing activists attacked LGBT people waving gay pride flags in Haifa.
According to Gal-On, Bennett’s rhetoric “turns every left-wing person or Arab into a traitor, and that is incitement. A small group that protests at a conference is not incitement.
“Young people fighting for justice and equality, against violence and incitement and for loving people and accepting the other are our hope for a different future,” she added. “We will not yet bullying and violence to stop the amazing thing they started.”