Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening session of the Knesset, October 15, 2018. (photo credit: ESTI DESIOVOV/TPS)
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Speaking at the inauguration of a medical center in Kiryat Shmona, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to a heckler who interrupted his speech, telling her that she is boring.
“What is happening here is that we are laughed at in the face,” said social activist Orna Peretz in an radio interview shortly after the incident. “The streets are neglected, there is plenty of corruption and gangs, there is no budget.”
Peretz interrupted Netanyahu when the prime minister was speaking about the right of all citizens to receive adequate medical treatment no matter where they are.
“Then why did you take away the emergency room?” she shouted, to which Netanyahu responded: “You’re not interesting, you’re boring us.”
Peretz said that she was immediately silenced and bullied by the prime ministers’ associates after her comments, and that she was showered with degrading curses.
“Where is the democracy that he prided himself with yesterday on the Knesset podium?” the frustrated Peretz complained.
Insisting that she is a huge Netanyahu supporter, she nevertheless lamented the situation in her hometown, especially the fact that the emergency room at the local hospital was closed five-and-a-half years ago and that proper medical treatment is too far away.
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The incident immediately sparked responses from former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon, who accused Netanyahu of being insensitive to the needs of resident of Israel’s periphery.
“Those who do not live in the periphery find it difficult to understand the concern… about access to medicine that affects their life expectancy in general, and the chances of survival in an emergency in particular,” he wrote.
Ya’alon, who was Defense Minister under Netanyahu until 2016 and likely to run for the next Knesset in a new party, said “it’s time for other leadership!”
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office clarified that Peretz had been interrupting Netanyahu constantly, including when he spoke about the passing of Jacob Weinroth. “We are saddened by the fact the big picture is not being presented,” the statement read.
Sources close to Netanyahu said that the prime minister does not usually react to hecklers, but was personally offended when the woman interrupted even when he wished to speak about his friend Weinroth.
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