Here’s a heartfelt apology that was published on Sunday:
לקראת יום כיפור ברצוני להתנצל בפני יאיר טרבלסי על שפגעתי בו. העלתי את תמונתו עם כיתוב שלא שיקף את המצב. התמונה נלקחה מפיגוע טרור שמנע יאיר כרבש”צ היישוב, פעולתו לא יצרה אלימות אלא מנעה אותה. לא חשבתי שהכיתוב יתפרש כאילו אני מאשים אותו באלימות.
אני מתנצל מעומק ליבי ומבקש את סליחתו— Mossi Raz | מוסי רז (@mossi_raz)
“In anticipation of Yom Kippur, I would like to apologize to Yair Trabelsi for hurting him. I uploaded his picture with a caption that did not reflect the true situation. The picture was taken during a terrorist attack that was prevented by Yair as the village security chief, his action did not create violence but prevented it. I didn’t expect that the caption would be interpreted as blaming him for violence. I apologize from the bottom of my heart and ask for his forgiveness.”
Last Wednesday, Moshe “Mossi” Raz, former secretary general of Peace Now and a former Meretz MK, tweeted a 2-year old image showing Yair Trabelsi, the local security coordinator of Karnei Shomron, pointing his weapon at an Arab boy and girl, which Raz captioned: “Violence is chipping away at the foundations of democracy,” suggesting, of course, that the man in the picture was a danger to the rule of law.
It tunred out that Raz had copied a screenshot from a video documenting a serious security incident during which Trabelsi and other Karnei Shomron security personnel foiled the efforts of two young Arab terrorists who had arrived at the entrance to the settlement and attempted to stab a civilian. In fact, the image that Raz screenshot shows an early moment along the incident, with the two terrorists still holding their knives which they later dropped in response to a warning shot.
Last week, Attorney Tzur Falk, the legal advisor to Ad Kan, a group dedicated to defend the good name of Israelis who are attacked by the left, as well as turn in leftist criminals who collaborate with the Palestinian Authority, sent Raz a strong warning letter describing the actual event behind the provocative image.
The entire event was documented on the locality’s security cameras, and reviewed by the IDF and the Karnei Shomron Security Department, which saw nothing improper in did not see any impetus in Trabelsi’s actions.
Falk, who noted that an Arab media network with 400,000 followers had re-tweeted Raz’s message with the fake news caption, demanded that Raz delete the tweet by Friday at noon. He also demanded an apology that would remain undeleted on Raz’s Twitter account for a month and a half, as well as be publicized in the media, otherwise he would sue Raz for libel.
Raz deleted the tweet last Thursday, shortly after the warning had been sent, and on Sunday Raz apologized to the security coordinator.