Winter's No. 3: bus segregation "a disgrace"

After Yoseph Haddad's statement in support of a Palestinian state, it appears that the number-three candidate on the Amcha Yisrael list, Netali Shem Tov's statements place her well to the left of where Ofer Winter would like to be.

On 24 March 2016, the day of the Elor Azaria incident in which he shot a neutralised terrorist, Shem Tov tweeted on X: "And one more question the military correspondents didn't ask the IDF spokesperson: what would have happened if B'Tselem's camera hadn't been there?"

On the decision to segregate Palestinians and Jews on buses in Judea and Samaria for security reasons and to protect Jewish passengers, she wrote a column on the Channel 12 website in which she described the move as "ugliness, despair and disgrace" and portrayed it as an assault on Israeli democracy.

She also criticised left-wing Knesset members who were not shocked by the policy itself but only by "what the world will say." It is worth noting that she now sits in a party that openly encourages emigration from Gaza.

In June 2014, against the backdrop of escalation in the south, Shem Tov tweeted sarcastically that an addition of one and a half million shekels for children in the area was "only 293.5 million shekels less than what was approved yesterday 'to deepen sovereignty in East Jerusalem.'"

But it is not only events from a decade ago. During Operation Shield and Arrow, the Gaza operation that preceded 7 October, Shem Tov asked on air on Channel 12 News whether there were innocent people in a Gaza apartment that was struck.

A user attacked her on social media for the odd question, and she replied: "I will always regret the deaths of the innocent, whom terrorists use as human shields without their choosing it (mostly children)." She added that "this is also Israel's position, by the way, Minister Karhi will tell you the same," and that "the deaths of the innocent also have implications for legitimacy and hasbara."

The connection to a Labour Party activist's movement

And how could we forget a little involvement from the New Israel Fund. On the website of "The Movement for Public Journalism," Shem Tov still appears as a team member in the role of "leading activity in the north." Her biography there presents her as "anchor and correspondent at Channel 12 News," meaning the profile has not been updated since 2023.

The founder and CEO of the movement is left-wing activist Yair Tarchitzky, who ran in the Labour Party primaries. Today he chairs "Workers for Democracy" and is one of the leaders of "the Democratic Camp in the Histadrut."

The New Israel Fund appears on the movement's website in the list of partners. In the fund's audited financial report for 2019, the movement is listed as having received a grant of $20,000 from it.

Netali doesn't need to prove she's a right-winger

Amcha Yisrael responded: "They're scared. Netali Shem Tov, who paid heavy prices for years for her right-wing positions, does not need to prove to the Israeli public that she is a right-winger.

There are those who want to preserve the monopoly and the political racket. The people of Israel demand new leadership on the right, and that is exactly what they will get in a landslide on 27 October."