JERUSALEM—Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s teenage son has received a death threat and bullet in the mail, Israeli officials said Thursday, the second such warning against the Israeli leader’s family this week.
The threats have come at a time of deep political divisions in Israel. In a major speech on Wednesday night marking Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, Bennett had spoken out against the polarization in Israel, urging citizens not to let internal divisions rip society apart.
Israeli police said that both incidents were being investigated, but gave few other details, including where the items were sent and who might have sent them.
In Wednesday’s speech, coming on one of the most solemn days of the year, Bennett implored the nation to put aside its differences.
“My brothers and sisters, we cannot, we simply cannot allow the same dangerous gene of factionalism dismantle Israel from within,” Bennett said.
That speech came a day after his family received a bullet in the mail for the first time. The episode prompted his 17-year-old son Yoni to express his sadness in an Instagram post.
“It’s just sad to see that real people write such horrible things,” he said. “To think that he lives and breathes like me but has a brain that was created by the devil is crazy.”
An Israeli official familiar with the matter confirmed on Thursday that the second threatening letter and bullet had been sent to Yoni Bennett. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Police have imposed a gag order on their investigation, and officials declined to say whether there were any suspects.
While many indications pointed to Jewish extremists, the threats also come at a time of heightened tensions with the Palestinians following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks in Israeli cities, Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, and cross-border fighting with Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
