This evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting with Israel Airports Authority workers committee chairman Pinhas Idan, with the aim of clearing the air and restoring the workers committee's support for the Likud party. Yesterday, Idan, who is number 36 on the Likud list for election to the Knesset, published a sharply worded letter in which he demanded that Netanyahu should apologize for the insult to the workers in the Likud election campaign video that compared the workers at the Broadcasting Authority and the ports to Hamas terrorists. Idan warned in his letter that unless Netanyahu apologized, the Likud would lose the support of many working class voters.
Fears grew in the Likud that the furor aroused by the video clip might lead to the loss of a Knesset seat, and Netanyahu decided to meet Idan and to declare that he had no intention of insulting the workers and that the clip was made in the carnival spirit of the Purim holiday.
"As a Likud activist who represents thousands of workers, I feel ashamed. Many workers who for years have voted Likud have told me that they will not be able any longer to vote for a party that turns them into an enemy. I don't see what there is to be proud of in laying off workers, in divisiveness, and in whipping up hatred. I don't understand how the Likud campaign could turn all the workers in the public sector, and perhaps even in the private sector, into enemies of the people," Idan wrote in his letter to Netanyahu, adding, "I demand that you should apologize publicly and personally for the gross insult to a whole community of workers that serves the Israeli public."
The Likud party said in a statement yesterday evening, "The Likud apologized for the video clip and immediately removed it from its election campaign material. We respect all the workers in Israel and had no intention of insulting anyone."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 9, 2015
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