Israeli charged for calling to burn Netanyahu alive on X

The State Attorney's Office filed an indictment Sunday in Petach Tikva Magistrate's Court against Raz Weinberger, 49, of Ein HaChoresh, charging him with posting incitement on his X account calling for the murder of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, coalition lawmakers and supporters of the government. Prosecutors are asking the court to hold Weinberger in custody until the end of proceedings.

According to the indictment, filed by attorney Maya Nitzan of the State Attorney's Cyber Unit, Weinberger posted 21 inciting messages over a period of about six weeks in the run-up to the 26th Knesset elections. The posts called for the murder of Netanyahu, Israeli cabinet ministers, coalition MKs and supporters of the prime minister and his government.

Among other things, Weinberger wrote in response to posts on Netanyahu's X account: "Benjamin Netanyahu, the greatest traitor in the history of the state, his sentence is death"; "Cursed traitor, your memory should be erased, you should be burned together with your psychotic wife and her two sons while you are still alive." In response to a post on the account of MK Almog Cohen, he wrote: "Your parents should watch as they behead you and throw your head to the Gazans to play football with."

The indictment charges Weinberger with 10 counts of incitement to terrorism and 18 counts of incitement to violence.

In the detention request filed alongside the indictment, the Cyber Unit noted that Weinberger's posts, their systematic and repetitive nature, their quantity and scope, and their inciting and violent content, all against the backdrop of the sensitivity and tension ahead of the 26th Knesset elections. demonstrate the danger he poses to the public and its security.

The prosecution argued that these were not isolated statements or remarks made in the heat of the moment, but rather a series of posts in which Weinberger repeatedly called for violence both against public officials and against anyone whose views differed from his own. This is compounded by the fact that until recently he possessed a weapon, a circumstance that heightens the concern about his ability to carry out himself the calls to violence he published.

Attorney Sunny Shaikis, representing the defendant, responded: "My client has no criminal record and has contributed to the state all his life. These are a number of statements written in the heat of emotion. The nature and severity of the acts will be clarified in the legal proceedings."