Threat level raised for Zvi Sukkot after MK tours Arab schools

Sukkot said one of the messages, which he said was sent by a Hamas supporter from eastern Jerusalem, included a photograph of a handgun.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, Amelie Botbol, JNS

A Hamas supporter from eastern Jerusalem threatened in a Facebook message to murder Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot after the Religious Zionist Party legislator toured Arab schools in the area, the Knesset member told JNS on Wednesday.

Sukkot told JNS that his security detail has been increased, adding that he has received a surge of threatening messages since visiting Arab schools in the eastern part of Israel’s capital.

“I think they realized that we are going to close their schools. Not only am I not afraid of them, but anyone who tries to hurt me will get a bullet in the head,” said Sukkot.

“Our enemies and their threatening messages will not stop us; they will only motivate us to act more forcefully. We will strengthen our security, and we will close their schools,” he added.

The Knesset and the Israel Police raised Sukkot’s threat level to Level 4, the second-highest, following a series of death threats, Arutz 7 reported earlier on Wednesday.

Sukkot said one of the messages, which he said was sent by a Hamas supporter from eastern Jerusalem, included a photograph of a handgun and read:

“I always have a weapon on me. You and [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir, … I will kill you, both you and Ben-Gvir, you dog.”

Sukkot, who chairs the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, has been touring Arab schools in Jerusalem as part of the committee’s oversight role.

On July 14, the Religious Zionism Party lawmaker conducted a surprise visit to the Islamic Orphanage Secondary School in Jerusalem’s Old City after his office received information that it was teaching the Palestinian Authority curriculum in violation of Israeli law.

“It cannot be that a Palestinian Authority school, an entity hostile to the State of Israel, continues to operate as usual within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel. This will come to an end, and we will shut down this school and every other educational institution like it in Jerusalem,” he said at the time.

“Anyone who incites and teaches their children that this is not the State of Israel is, in effect, paving the way for those children to grow up to become the terrorists of the next generation,” Sukkot added.