A group of social activists including the well-known activist Sheffi Paz have been arrested after breaking into a kindergarten catering to the children of asylum seekers and filming what was going on there at the time.
Gilad Halachmi, a social activist from southern Tel Aviv who was not involved in the incident, spoke with Radio 103FM afterward. “Last night, we were at the courthouse until two in the morning,” he said.
He related that “Police requested that the activists be held in jail for five days – that is, Sheffi, Doron, and Eliya. But the judge didn’t grant their request – she's only keeping, holding them in house arrest for seven days.
“The police are afraid of releasing Sheffi and Doron,” he added. “They’re afraid of what they might do from their homes – they think they head some kind of mafia.”
When pressed, Halachmi admitted that he did not support the kind of action for which Paz and her fellow activists were arrested. “I have no problem with certain kinds of activities involving children, such as filming them acting violently and so forth. But I’m not sure what they really gained from what they did in this specific incident.”
The debate heated up when Yariv Oppenheimer, a member of the far-left Meretz party and a former leader of the Peace Now movement, challenged the presenter on Radio 103FM.
“She [Sheffi Paz] broke into a kindergarten and terrorized some of the most vulnerable children in Israeli society,” he said. “That’s one of the most disgusting things a person can do.”
The presenter responded that, “I don’t approve of what she did, but the question is – should she have been arrested for doing it?” to which Oppenheimer countered, “If you don’t get arrested for something like that, then what should you get arrested for?”
The debate then intensified, with the presenter asking Oppenheimer if he means to “equate Sheffi Paz with some Sudanese or Eritrean immigrant who might easily crack a bottle over your head?”
Oppenheimer responded: “I mean to equate Paz with the biggest racist inciters in history.”
The presenter then stated that, “You, and your fellow privileged citizens have promised to absorb all these immigrants. So, where are the kibbutzim? Why aren’t they taking them in? Me – I’d as soon put them all on a plane and fly them back to where they came from.”
“Are they dogs?” Oppenheimer responded. “Asylum seekers are human beings, not animals.”
To which the presenter countered, “You can call them human beings when they’re safely in south Tel Aviv – but what about when they’re in your home?”