Surprise interview on Israeli TV with Hebron settler appalls the public
Saturday, January 25th, 2003
Translated from Maariv

Surprise interview on Israeli TV with Hebron settler appalls the public

On the evening of the extraordinary funeral in Hebron on Sunday 19 January 2003, when gangs of settlers clashed with the police in a struggle to bury their killed comrade Nati Ozeri on an illegal outpost, Arutz 10 TV hosts Shai and Dror phoned up settler leader Noam Federman. Federman (34), former activist in the outlawed Jewish terrorist organization Kach, is under house arrest in Hebron since October when he was ruled to be a ?serious security threat? by the IDF central command. He is suspected of involvement in the plans to blow up a Palestinian elementary school in East Jerusalem, and has been arrested in the past for crimes like illegal appropriation of explosive material.

As part of the ?Shai and Dror Show?, a satirical political talkshow, Shai conducted a ?surprise phone call? with Federman. The comments the latter made were so appalling that they earned the scandalized reaction of Israeli politicians and public; Yossi Sarid, Meretz Chair, declared, ?Hebron is the capital of Jewish madness. [?] I would disperse that [settler] community not only for political reasons, but also for psychiatric reasons.? The producer of the show, Ami Amir, warned that the difference between Federman and Baruch Marzel, Knesset candidate in the upcoming elections, is not big. ?We must understand that these fringes exist and continue to incite beyond any imaginable platform.?

Below you will find a transcript of Shai?s interview with Federman. Translated by AIC staff from the Israeli daily Maariv, 21 January 2003.

?Detests leftwing traitors?

*Shai: Hello Noam Federman.

Federman: Hello, who is it?

*S: This is Shai from ?Shai and Dror?. Are you at home now?

F: Yes.

*S: Have you stolen the corpse? [of slain settler Nati Ozeri, whose dramatic funeral was concurrently underway]

F: I am under house arrest under the order of the IDF central commander; he did not permit for me to go to the funeral.

*S: What is your connection to the stealing of the corpse?

F: What is your connection to the stealing of the corpse?

*S: We are interested in the event.

F: I?ll tell you how you are connected to it: it?s because of the likes of you that Jews are murdered, so you are also implicated in the stealing of the corpse.

*S: How exactly are we implicated?

F: How? Because you are left-wingers.

*S: You mean we sent him [Ozeri] to go settle over there on his own?

F: You are left-wingers, so this is what happens.

*S: It?s because of left-wingers that Jews get murdered?

F: Of course, it?s because of left-wingers.

*S: Left-wingers sit here quietly in Tel-Aviv, eating sushi; they wouldn?t do anything to anybody.

F: Left-wingers get blown up in Tel-Aviv and afterwards we get blown up here in Hebron because of you.

*S: Maybe it?s the other way around? Because you sit over there in your weird places people get blown up in Tel-Aviv?

F: Shenkin Street [in trendy downtown Tel-Aviv] seems to me to be a weird place in comparison with Hebron. And Neve She?anan [neighbourhood], with all those Blacks and Indians and Hispanics and Japanese and Chinese, that is much weirder than Hebron.

*S: Tell me, do you consider yourself a misanthrope that hates people? Do you hate left-wingers?

F: I detest left-wingers.

*S: You detest them. You really don?t like them. Whom do you like less: left-wingers or Arabs? What is worse?

F: Left-wingers are much worse than Arabs.

*S: If you could execute transfer [expulsion], would you kick the Arabs out or the left-wingers?

F: Left-wingers are a bunch of traitors who would sell out their nation for a handful of peanuts, for the sake of appearances, and they are much worse than the Arabs.

*S: Tell me, is there one left-winger that you think is a real threat to the nation, and that because of him all this is happening?

F: There are lots of those. Yossi Sarid [Meretz], Yossi Beilin [Oslo negotiator], Mitzna [Labour].

*S: Who is most prominent in your opinion?

F: Beilin.

*S: What would you do to him?

F: I would take him to court and prove that he is responsible for the Oslo crimes. Bring him to justice and if he?s convicted ? and I believe he would be convicted ? I would hang him in a square in the city center, in Malkei Yisrael Square for instance.

*S: But only after a legal process, because this is a democratic state.

F: Absolutely, we would bring witnesses and everything, all the orphans of Oslo.

*S: Would you like to be the one that hangs him personally, the one to put the rope around his neck?

F: Very happily.

*S: Would it give you a nice feeling?

F: It?s not the matter of a nice feeling, on the contrary it hurts to have to hang a Jew, but what can be done.

*S: Whom else would you like to hang while you are at it?

F: Let?s not start naming people.

*S: Listen, let?s say they followed your advice and gave you five gallows in the town square.

F: They?ve already killed [Yitzhak] Rabin.

*S: You?ve already killed Rabin.

F: Yes, Rabin is dead already.

*S: So whom else?

F: [Shimon] Peres.

*S: You would hang Peres?

F: Why not? Beilin, Rabin, er? Rabin is already?

*S: You have already eliminated Rabin, whom else?

F: Whom else? Anybody who betrays the nation of Israel.

*S: Noam Federman, thank you very much, continue there in Hebron with all the good work that you are doing over there.

F: All the best, good bye.

*S: Good bye. Nice guy. Would have liked to get to know the fellow better.