U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman leveled some harsh criticism at Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday over a recent article by columnist Gideon Levy about Friedman's donation of an ambulance to the settlement of Har Bracha.
"What has become of @Haaretz?" Friedman tweeted on Friday in response to Levy's article, in which the controversial columnist argued that Har Bracha – literally a "mountain of blessings" – was actually a "mountain of curses" because its very existence as a settlement is a "provocation" that stands in the way of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Earlier this week, a Palestinian terrorist murdered Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, a 29-year-old resident of Har Bracha, as the latter was trying to catch a ride to his nephew's brit milah celebration. Following the attack Monday, Friedman tweeted that "20 years ago I gave an ambulance to Har Bracha hoping it would be used to deliver healthy babies. Instead, a man from Har Bracha was just murdered by a terrorist, leaving behind a wife and four children."
In response to the tweet, Levy wrote Thursday that "with Friedman's ambulance or without it, Har Bracha is a mountain of curses. It was a settlement established, like all the others, to poke a stick in the Palestinian eye and drive a stake into any chance of an agreement."
Friedman was outraged by Levy's column, which was published before the Ben-Gal's shiva – the traditional seven-day mourning period – had ended. Friedman hit back with another tweet, saying, "Four young children are sitting shiva for their murdered father and this publication calls their community a 'mountain of curses.' Have they no decency?"
Friedman's tweet did not go unanswered for long. Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken responded with his own retort, asserting that "Gideon Levy is right."
"As long as the policy of Israel, that your Government and yourself support, is obstructing peace process, practical annexation of the territories, perpetuating apartheid, fighting terror but willing to pay its price, there will be more Shivas," Schocken tweeted.
