This is not the first time Rabin’s grandson showed his distaste for Netanyahu.
By Aaron Sull, World Israel News
The grandson of late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yonatan Ben Artzi, tweeted on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should catch coronavirus and die. Later that evening, he apologized for his careless remarks after receiving severe backlash.
“If Netanyahu lied to the people of Israel and basically only play acted saying ‘We must have an emergency coronavirus unity government’ and basically meant an election then he deserves to contract coronavirus and end his life in a sick prison,” Ben Artzi originally tweeted. “Karma,” he added.
Ben Artzi was referring to the recent stall in emergency unity government talks between Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
“Let me make it clear: Whoever uses human illnesses such as coronavirus to conduct politics deserves coronavirus. It’s contempt and mockery of human life. Be well, just stop lying and playing around,” he tweeted.
This is not the first time Rabin’s grandson showed his distaste for Netanyahu.
At an official memorial ceremony for Rabin at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl national cemetery last November, Ben Artzi urged a “stained” Netanyahu to resign over the three criminal cases pending against him.
“This is the time to take responsibility, to lead by example,” Ben Arzi said. “If there is a stain on your character, move aside, resign from your roles.”
He referenced his grandfather as an example of taking the moral high ground when he resigned in 1977 after it was discovered that he and his wife held bank accounts in America, something illegal under Israeli law at the time.
“Even though he believed wholeheartedly that he was the right person to lead [the country], he decided to take personal responsibility and resign his position,” Ben Artzi said. “To make a painful personal concession, for the sake of Israeli democracy, so that it will not be stained.”