Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Monday, "In a democracy it is permissible to criticize anyone, and not every criticism is incitement."
Responding during opening remarks at the meeting of the Likud Knesset faction to a poster of President Rivlin wearing a kaffiyeh, the prime minister noted that not every criticism is appropriate, "substantive criticism, without kaffiyehs, without hanging ropes, without statues and without Nazi uniforms, in which we all have been dressed," which he called "unacceptable".
Netanyahu stressed that "it is impossible to define substantive criticism from the right as incitement, and from the left as freedom of expression." Regarding Rivlin's refusal to pardon soldier Elor Azariya, serving a manslaughter sentence in the death of a wounded terrorist, which prompted the poster, Netanyahu said, "I called for a pardon from the first day. My opinion has not changed."