Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
A 21-year-old IDF soldier has been arrested for threatening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on social media a day after the politician revealed he had been receiving death threats online.
The unnamed suspect was reportedly arrested in northern Israel and was taken for a remand hearing at Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s court in the Gush Dan metropolitan area.
Reports state a cyber unit of the national crime squad made the arrest after the suspect is alleged to have made threats which investigators did not provide more details about.
However, according to local media the soldier posted: “There’s a solution and it’s to take down Bibi (a nickname for Netanyahu). This happened in the past with a prime minister who they unjustly took down, but now we have a prime minister who takes down his citizens. Apparently this will happen again and justly and also the police who are his slaves just need to be stoned to death. This is the solution.”
Police did not say if the arrest was linked to Netanyahu’s social media post on Monday in which he said he had previously filed “a complaint with the police about a series of threats to murder me and my family”.
The Israeli Prime Minister went on to say he had filed another police complaint on Monday as a man was “detailing” how he intended to murder the politician and his family.
He then called on the media and “the left” to condemn the “incessant incitement” against him and his family.
Netanyahu has reportedly been the target of several death threats in recent years, with netizens calling on his family to be “beheaded” and have their bodies hung from balconies.
His son Yair, who lives in the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem residence, was slammed for seemingly wishing death on left-wing protesters Tel Aviv rally against the prime minister in April this year.
It is unclear if the suspect has been charged.
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