An "ordinary citizen" from Modi'in is the latest person to impact the heated debate surrounding comments made by Professor Hillel Weiss during the eviction of two Jewish families from the Hebron marketplace on Tuesday.
Weiss was caught on camera cursing Colonel Yehuda Fox, commander of the IDF's Hebron brigade. “May your mother be bereaved, your wife be widowed, your children be orphaned and may you be struck down in the next war and any memory of you be erased," Weiss said.
"I'm not a political man, just an ordinary citizen," said Itzik Harel Wednesday after he filed a formal complaint with the Modi'in police against Weiss, "I'm not a leftist but still, I believe a red line was crossed here."
“I saw what happened today on Ynet, I heard it on the radio, and I was appalled. I heard the police were considering launching an investigation, I don’t understand what there is to consider here. I'm a lawyer and his comments clearly constitute an insult to a public servant. This morning I heard him (Weiss) give an interview and not only did he not take anything back, he repeated himself," said Harel.
"Exactly one year ago today I was in the reserves fighting in the Second Lebanon War and my tank was hit. Today I see the professor approaching an officer and slapping him with insults. It's atrocious."
An officer from the district's Investigations and Intelligence department, Commander Itzik Rahamim, said he was consulting with legal advisors on whether charges could be pressed against Weiss.
Harel stressed that the complaint was not politically motivated: "Professor Weiss' words angered me as a
citizen of this country and as a parent. I'm an ordinary citizen who decided to act. I could have stayed home and written another talkback and gotten angry, but this time I think something needed to be done.
"I hope the police investigate Professor Weiss. This is the little I can do; this is the only democratic way that I as a citizen can use to make a difference."