Graffiti targeting President Isaac Herzog, who presented a watered-down plan for judicial reform last week, was spray-painted in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem. One appeared on a lamp post and another on an electric panel in the neighborhood.
One of the signs read: “Herzog is stinking left-winger, the presidency is harmful and expensive.”
Zvi Friedman, a resident of the neighborhood, told Israel National News: “I was taken aback when I walked down a street named after Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook ZT”L a well-known lover of Israel, and saw the hateful inscriptions emblazoned on the walls. I asked myself how far we were willing to go and whether the commandment to “honor” a president still applied.
”What is the President’s sin?,” asks Friedman. His desire is to bring about the unification of the terrible rift in which we find ourselves. Instead of supporting him and praying for his success, we afford him such hatred. Shame on those who’ve shamed all of us.”

קללות נגד הרצוג
צילום: צבי פרידמן
Meanwhile, Jerusalem police detained a resident of Modi’in in his 60s on suspicion of spray-painting the words: “Levin – enemy of the people”, on the wall of the home of Justice Minister Yariv Levin while he was sitting shivah for his late father.
Police said that the suspect was identified thanks to video footage and forensic findings collected at the scene.
The suspect denies any connection to the incident. While the person in question took part in demonstrations outside Levin’s home, his attorney Gonen Ben Itzhak said his client: “completely denies spray painting graffiti against the Minister of Justice.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the incident saying he, “Strongly condemns the spraying of the hateful graffiti against Minister Yariv Levin while he was sitting shiva [for his late father], the violent attack against Minister Nir Barkat while he was at a political event and the calls for murder against the chair of the Knesset Constitution Committee Simcha Rothman. I expect the police and the State Attorney”s Office to act immediately and with full force against these manifestations of incitement and violence.”
“The serious hate speech that was spray-painted on the house of Yariv Levin while he is sitting shiva over his father, is the result of an organized campaign of incitement designed to incite hatred against us,” said Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar. “We are democratically implementing the will of the voter and bringing about a long-awaited change. The incitement and lies that our democracy is in danger are a spin designed to deter the public. The reform will be instituted as planned.”