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Israel’s new Justice Minister thinks Muslims prone to ‘cultural murderousness’

June 6, 2019 at 11:29 am

Knesset members Yehuda Glick (R) and Amir Ohana (C) and Shuli Mualem can be seen outside Al-Aqsa Mosque [Shuli_MR/Twitter]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Islamophobic right-winger Amir Ohana as Justice Minister, reported Haaretz.

Ohana was reportedly appointed on the basis that “unlike other Likud members, he supports changes that would grant immunity from indictment to acting prime ministers.”

Netanyahu will likely be indicted later this year in three cases of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

Ohana is a litigator who interned at the State Prosecutor’s Office. In the Knesset, he was a primary driver behind the Jewish Nation-State Law.

In a 2017 interview, Ohana defended the law by attacking Palestinian identity itself.

READ: Netanyahu fires Bennett, Shaked amid Israel cabinet shuffle 

“Historically, the Jewish people has no other home than the Land of Israel,” the Likud lawmaker stated. “What is a Palestinian people? What sets it apart? Does it have its own language? Its own currency? No. Therefore, I can go to Mohammed and tell him, ‘Even though your grandfather, and maybe your grandfather’s grandfather, were born here – this is my country’.”

In the same interview, Ohana also launched an attack on Muslims.

“Who is responsible for the acts of murder and massacre in the world over the past 50 years? Muslims. Not in 100 per cent of the cases, but certainly in a clear majority of more than 90 per cent. That is cultural murderousness,” he declared.

Asked whether he would defend Netanyahu if he were to face corruption cases, Ohana said: “It depends very much on what the indictment is and on the nature of the evidence. Cigars and champagne are one thing, and something that has to do with submarines…is something else.”

Netanyahu currently heads an interim government after failing to form a coalition following April’s election. Last week, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself, sending Israel to an unprecedented second election in a year, scheduled for 17 September.