On Tuesday morning, Army Radio tweeted a quote from MK Mossi Raz about the settlers’ suffering: “They set up settlements wherever they wanted and that caused IDF soldiers to be killed in defense of these places. In order not to suffer, the welfare services have to take his children and transfer them to Israel – they will be sent to foster families.”
ח”כ אצל : “הם הקימו ישובים איפה שהם רצו וזה גרם לחיילים בצה”ל להיהרג בהגנה על המקומות האלה. כדי שלא יסבלו, שירותי הרווחה צריכים לקחת את הילדים שלו ולהעביר אותם לישראל – שיגורו אצל משפחות אומנה”
(צילום: יונתן זינדל, פלאש90) pic.twitter.com/P1a07emgeA— גלצ (@GLZRadio)
The person whose children should be taken away from him was Itai Zar, one of the leaders of the “young settlements” struggle, who earlier this year went on a hunger strike. But the point about taking away settlers’ children was not new. It was first made by the left ahead of the 2005 Gush Katif expulsions when those leftists couldn’t bear to watch the suffering of the children they were expelling from the homes where they were born.
The Young Settlements Forum retaliated: “The welfare services need to get the children out of Mossi Raz’s home so they won’t become disgusting like him.”
Raz is married to IBM employee Yael Polak and they have a son and a daughter together. They are vegan, so if the kids are taken away they should probably go to a foster family that serves steak.
MK Orit Strock (Religious Zionism) said in response: “I have no expectations of Mossi Raz, who ideologically supports the evacuation, demolition, and destruction of both the young and old settlements. My expectations are of Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, Gideon Sa’ar, Ze’ev Elkin, and their friends who are supposed to be committed to the young settlements, they made them promises, and today they are turning their backs on them.”
Not sure about the second part, seeing as it appears the Bennett-Shaked-Sa’ar-Elkin government is offering the settlements some 3,000 housing starts over the next few years. But you got the point.
MK Michal Shir (New Hope), chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said: “Last hour, I heard an outrageous statement from a politician who claims that the welfare authorities should take children in illegal outposts from their homes and transfer them to foster families in Israel. It is a statement that comes either from complete ignorance or from a lack of basic human compassion. A child must not be cut off from his home because of the place where he lives – no matter if it is the center of the Galilee or Samaria.”
The Yesha Council issued an official statement saying that “Mossi Raz continues to present the sick agenda of a Hamas operative and not of a coalition MK. His was a detached statement that showed how blind the extreme left is to the pain of the other. We will not hesitate to stand behind families who decide to sue him for defamation.”
Not sure how that would get done.
MK Raz finally tweeted a response: “Army Radio digital has a fake quote that was never said by me. Itai Zar asked me what to do so that his children would no longer suffer from the lack of services. I suggested that he move with his children within the borders of Israel, or transfer them to a foster family. Of course, I did not refer to all the settlers and spoke in a single person and not as it appears on the Army radio website.”
בדיגיטל של גל”צ מסתובב ציטוט פייק שלא נאמר על ידי מעולם. איתי זר שאל אותי מה לעשות כדי שילדיו לא יסבלו יותר מחוסר השירותים. הצעתי לו לעבור עם ילדיו לתוך גבולות ישראל, או להעבירם למשפחת אמנה. כמובן שלא התייחסתי לכלל המתנחלים ודיברתי בגוף יחיד ולא כפי שמופיע באתר גלי צה”ל.
— Mossi Raz | מוסי רז | موسي راز ? (@mossi_raz)
But even if he’s right, I endorse everything that the above folks said about the Meretz MK. He deserved it.