Palestinian lawyers call for investigation of police minister as survey shows soaring levels of anti-Arab speech on Hebrew social media<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s 1.7 million Palestinian citizens are facing a tidal wave of incitement and hate speech on social media, including from government ministers, community leaders have warned.<\/p>\n
They say the increasingly hostile political climate in Israel is stoking violence from the police and street gangs, and has laid the ground for a recent raft of racist legislative proposals.<\/p>\n
The alert comes as a group of Palestinian lawyers demand that Israel\u2019s attorney general investigates Gilad Erdan, the internal security minister, for incitement to racism.<\/p>\n
Adalah, a legal group for Israel\u2019s Palestinian minority, highlighted statements from Erdan blaming Palestinian citizens for \u201carson terrorism\u201d last November after forest fires swept the country, despite their having been no prosecutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael has experienced arson terrorism and I won\u2019t let anyone sweep this fact under the rug,\u201d he wrote on Facebook in December. \u201cWhy does it seem unrealistic that Arabs would attempt to harm Jews?\u201d<\/p>\n
Adalah argued\u00a0Erdan\u2019s comments were part of a wider government strategy to portray Palestinian citizens, about 20 per cent of Israel\u2019s population, as a \u201cfifth column\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although other government ministers had incited, the group said, Erdan\u2019s statements were especially harmful because of his role overseeing the police. Adalah said he was…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n