There was a reminder, too, of Mr Netanyahu's own dismal record. An investigation was dropped last month against the prime minister over his warnings, using Israeli terminology for a military emergency, that Palestinian citizens were coming out "in droves" to vote in March's general election.
A consequence of government-inspired incitement is an ever uglier climate. In many towns, crowds calling "death to the Arabs" barely raise an eyebrow any more.
The justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, has backed a bill to stigmatize Israeli human-rights groups that receive foreign, mostly European, funding. And, the culture minister, Miri Regev, demanded that films showing in an Israeli festival about the Nakba, the Palestinians' mass dispossession in 1948, be vetted to ensure none included "incitement."
Public meetings with groups such as Breaking the Silence, Israeli army veterans who want to shed light on the occupation, are being cancelled under police pressure.
Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is giving a free hand to far right-wing news sites as they make false and pernicious claims.
One, Newsdesk Israel, took a four-year-old video of Palestinians revelling at their acceptance into the United Nations and repackaged it as footage of Palestinians celebrating ISIL's massacres in Paris. Another fabricated report suggested Palestinian citizens were proselytizing for ISIL by blasting its songs on their car stereos.
In fact, no target seems too big to avoid the Israeli right's defamation -- not even Europe, Israel's largest trading partner.
Israeli politicians have misrepresented as a full-blown boycott the EU's recent tepid move to label products from illegal West Bank settlements and thereby deny them special customs exemptions reserved for Israeli products. The right argues Israel is being uniquely punished by Europe, when in truth the EU has enforced economic sanctions, not just labelling, against 36 countries.
Incitement does indeed pose a threat to the future of Israelis and Palestinians. But it is to be found in the falsehoods promoted by Mr Netanyahu and his ministers, not the bitter truths being posted on YouTube.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
