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Netanyahu files police complaint after leftist agitator threatens his son

The prime minister filed a complaint with police after a video posted on social media showed a known left-wing activist with a history of provocations against Netanyahu’s son Yair saying “one day you’ll be without the security guards – boom. You never know.”

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Yair filed a police complaint Wednesday after a video showed a left-wing activist yelling insults and appearing to threaten an attack on his son Yair.

“I filed a complaint with the Israel Police for blatant incitement to violence against me and against my son Yair,” Netanyahu tweeted.

The video showed what Netanyahu described as “extreme left activist” Chaim Shadmi at a demonstration near the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem in which Shadmi, his lower face covered by the required mask against the coronavirus, is heard issuing what appear to be threats against Yair Netanyahu.

“Yair, remember our promise. It looks very far away. We told you all the time: We know why you need security guards. Believe me, we know. One day you’ll be without the security guards – boom. You never know,” Shadmi says.

A police spokesman confirmed that complaints of incitement and threats were filed.

“In every case that comes known to the police alleging crimes of incitement have been committed, the information is looked into, passed on to the Prosecutor’s Office for general consideration and a decision as to continuing procedures, as is customary. This is also the case in this situation,” police said.

“The incitement on the far left crossed red lines. These are real threats to my son’s life. These threats must not be ignored,” Netanyahu tweeted.

Netanyahu and Shadmi have had a modestly antagonistic online relationship since Shadmi opened his Twitter account last August, hurling only eight tweets mentioning Yair Netanyahu by name.

It’s not the younger Netanyahu’s first time dealing with the courts.

In November, 2018, Yair Netanyahu filed a 1 million shekel ($360,000) lawsuit against his former driver who had recorded him making lewd remarks while being driven with some friends.

Last year Netanyahu won a lawsuit he filed in 2016 against a political activist who posted on Facebook that the prime minister had asked the Mossad chief to issue his son a fake passport for the purposes of hiding millions in offshore accounts.