Jezreel Valley Resident Charged with Threatening Defense Minister Israel Katz
An 84-year-old kibbutz resident was charged in Nazareth with threatening to shoot Defense Minister Israel Katz over the decision to close Army Radio.
An 84-year-old resident of a kibbutz in the Jezreel Valley has been charged with threatening to shoot Minister of Defense Israel Katz over the decision to close the Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) station. The indictment was recently filed in the Nazareth Magistrate Court.
According to the indictment, on November 12 of last year—the same day Katz announced his decision—the defendant wrote on a Facebook account he managed: "I intend to shoot Israel Katz, the challenged and ugly man for the idiotic decision to close Galei Tzahal." Following a report regarding the threat, the suspect was summoned for questioning at the Migdal HaEmek police station, and the evidence was subsequently forwarded to the police prosecution department, which filed charges of making threats.
"By his actions described above, the defendant threatened Minister Katz with unlawful bodily harm, with intent to intimidate or provoke him," wrote Adv. Jean Abd al-Malik of the Emakim region prosecution office. Adv. Wassim Daher, senior deputy to the Northern District Public Defender, representing the defendant, stated in response: "This is a completely normative defendant with no criminal record who has never encountered the police before. A law-abiding citizen who never had any intention of harming the minister. We will present our defense line in court."
