A day after Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett announced his intention to form a unity government along with Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, the threat level to the lives of Bennett and fellow Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked has been elevated to level 5 — the second highest threat level.
The two Yamina leaders now receive a "security basket" from the Knesset, which includes guards at their homes, personal security and increased police in their residential areas. Bennett has also been issued an armored car.
No police investigation is currently underway on suspicion of incitement, and an investigation can only be ordered by the State Attorney or the Attorney-General.
Police have stated that they carefully examine and monitor all publications so that there is an up-to-date picture at any given moment.
Labor Party Secretary General Eran Hermoni filed a complaint with the police on Monday for inciting violence regarding a large amount of "leftist traitors" signs which had been hoisted during demonstrations near the home of Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked in Tel Aviv the previous night.The complaint targets any and all financiers, printers, distributors and activists who raised such signs in recent days.
In the police complaint, the signs state that the signs work to permit violence towards Israeli citizens who hold leftist ideological and political positions.
"Defining and labeling them as traitors, no less, has a clear meaning on how to "treat" them," the Labor Party said in a statement.
Hermoni said in the statement that "It's enough to look at the signs to understand: this is not a sporadic or spontaneous protest. Behind this gathering stands a well-oiled system of planning, financing and distribution."
"The police must investigate the sources of this incitement, and enforce the law. Unfortunately, the State of Israel already knows the results of such incitement," he said, referencing the incitement campaign which preceded the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
He concluded by referencing Netanyahu's response to the incitement back then, saying that "In order for us not to hear again excuses of "I couldn't hear them from the balcony, I didn't know," the Israeli police and the ombudsman must stop the madness now!"
Labor Party chairwoman Merav Michaeli also referenced the signs at a faction meeting on Monday, saying that "[Netanyahu's] hatred is the main reason why I have always refused to sit with him and why I am so committed to replacing him."
She responded to Netanyahu's mentions of her on Sunday, saying "I heard my name spoken many times last night in Netanyahu's speech, a speech of hatred and incitement against anyone who disagrees with him, no matter if it is from the right or the left."
"Then I saw the signs at demonstrations by Netanyahu's supporters, signs with very dangerous words of incitement and hatred, words that were directed against left wingers and right wingers, terrible words that remind us of dark times, the same words we saw in the incitement campaign against Yitzhak Rabin, which to a very large extent continues until this very day," she added.
New Hope Party chairman Gideon Sa'ar also condemned the incitement, saying "People are delegitimizing a government that has not yet been formed."
"The incitement machine has started working even before this government did anything. An incitement machine that has nothing to do with ideology - only with anxiety about losing power," he said.
"Political opponents from the left are not enemies," Sa'ar concluded.