Israel: Former PM condemns woman who sent threatening letters to Bennett
Netanyahu spoke out against 'all types of violence against the prime minister or any other person'
Israel's opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday condemned threats against Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made by right-wing activist Ilana Sporta Hania.
He spoke out against "all types of violence against the prime minister or any other person" on his channel on the Telegram app. He added that if Hania is proven guilty, she would be expelled from his Likud party.
Hania, 65, from the southern city of Ashkelon, was arrested Monday on suspicion that she sent two letters to Bennett's family containing bullets and threatening their safety.
Her identity was revealed on Thursday after a gag order was lifted by the court. Details of her history of activism in support of Likud and against the current government also emerged.
Hania has been investigated in the past for threatening politicians, according to The Times of Israel.
She was filmed in September calling on New Hope member Bennie Begin, a former member of Likud, to drown himself in the ocean.
Hania claimed during a court hearing that she was forced into confessing to crimes by an investigating officer, who threatened her that if she didn't do so, her husband and children would also be arrested.
“Why do you perform interrogation exercises on an old woman and threaten the arrest of her father and daughter?” asked Adi Carmeli, Hania’s lawyer, according to Channel 12. “At what point does my client say, ‘What do you want me to admit? Just leave me alone,'” he added.