Israeli Police officials said Sunday morning that Lt. Col. (res.) Zeev Raz, a staunch opponent of Netanyahu, was summoned for questioning on suspicion of incitement and threats, following a Facebook post in which he called for the killing of any Prime Minister “who will assume dictatorial powers,” in reference to Netanyahu.

Nevertheless, in an interview a few hours after being summoned, Raz claimed "the police did not contact me,” while adding “this is not my post. I shared it." Raz, who emphasized that he was not being interviewed while speaking with Yedioth also added that he was sorry.

🔴Israeli Prime Minister reacts to online threats to his life calling on law enforcement to take measures against incitement

'Lines are being crossed every day and it seemed like every boundary had already been crossed in threats on elected officials a... https://t.co/vq2ac6t5u3

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) February 5, 2023

On the Facebook page of Raz, one of the leaders of the 2020-2021 "Balfour Protests" against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he wrote that “If a prime minister stands up and assumes dictatorial powers for himself, he is a dead man, it’s as simple as that, along with his ministers and his followers.” Raz was citing the Jewish religious principle of din rodef, allowing the extrajudicial killing of an individual who intends to kill or harm others, which could apply to a prime minister in that case, as well as to his ministers and followers.

The Likud said following Raz’s statement that "the incitement against Netanyahu breaks records of insanity". In an interview Sunday morning, MK Hanoch Milavitsky of the Likud claimed that "we are seeing a severe deterioration and escalation in the statements of those members of the anti-Netanyahu forum that is leading the protest. They talk openly about violence, the use of weapons, and murder. These things are very worrying." 

Netanyahu slams ‘explicit threat’ by protest leader to murder himhttps://t.co/nXYB7V9RZZ

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According to Milavitsky, "If it was some kind of country boy, if there was some negligible right-wing activist from some settlement in the farthest point of the State of Israel who would have said something similar, he would have been locked up by the Shin Ben a long time ago."

Last night, after the publication on Raz's Facebook page, the police issued an official announcement in which they announced that Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai decided, following a "significant increase in serious incitement statements", that any publication "of this type" on social networks and the media will be investigated.

"𝗛𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲.” @netanyahu slams ‘explicit threat’ by protest leader.https://t.co/Uw8M57f2Vj

— Jewish News Syndicate (@JNS_org) February 5, 2023

After that, an unusual announcement was published on behalf of the Shin Bet, in which it was stated that the head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, spoke with the police commissioner against the background of the increase in violent and inciting discourse against elected officials in general and the prime minister in particular. In the conversation, the head of the Shin Bet noted that In the latter, an increase in the scope and severity of public statements is detected, with an emphasis on social networks, which contain calls for physical harm and violent activity against the Prime Minister and other elected officials.