Right-wing leader Bennett: ‘When Palestinians were climbing trees, we already had a Jewish state’

Noam Sheizaf By Noam Sheizaf January 1, 2013 | Edit

Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Jewish Home party and the rising star of the right, is considered the new, modern and hospitable face of the hard right. His rise in the polls has won him international attention, and the New York Times has called him “the campaign’s most dynamic and influential factor.” But underneath the smooth look there seems to be just plain old racism.

Here is Bennett in a television debate in 2010 with Palestinian MK Ahmad Tibi. In the beginning, Tibi says that he sees a place for Jews (“but not settlers”) in the future Palestinian State, but then things get heated up, and that’s how it ends (2:33 min):

Tibi: I expect nothing from a settler that robbed land which is not his own. I treat you as a tumor that needs to be removed.

Bennett: Okay. When you were still climbing trees, we had a Jewish state here… We were here long before you.

Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf is an independent journalist and editor. He was the founding executive director and editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. Prior to joining +972, he worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper, Ynet, and the Maariv daily, where his last position was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. He is currently working on a number of documentary films.

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