Rightists: Probe Big Brother contestant who wants Palestinians to 'rise up'

Two right-wing public figures are calling for the criminal investigation of a contestant on the reality TV show "Big Brother" who said on the show that "the occupation would be over" if the Palestinians were to "rise up" and refuse to listen to Israeli soldiers performing security checks at roadblocks.

MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) and Sholom Dov Wolpo, the Chabad rabbi who heads the right-wing Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, one of four factions that make up the National Union party, asked Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan on Monday to investigate "Big Brother" contestant Edna Canetti. They say she has publicly incited rebellion and advocated refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

On the show, Canetti described her volunteer work at Machsom Watch, which monitors the conduct of Israel Defense Forces soldiers manning roadblocks in the West Bank, by saying: "I go to the roadblocks and I see all the thousands of people going where they are told, showing their identity cards and lifting their shirts. If they were to say, 'Shove your laws up your ass, we don't want to show you identity cards and we aren't going away from the roadblocks,' and if 2 million [Palestinian] people were to rise up, put on white clothes and say, 'We are going where we want to go, this is our land,' the occupation would be over."

Ben Ari and Wolpo said in a letter to Nitzan that Canetti's comments were slanderous and illegal.

"These remarks are slanderous and contain violations of the law," they wrote. "Ms. Canetti is in effect calling upon the Arabs to revolt against the state of Israel, to disobey orders from Israel Defense Forces soldiers and even start a rebellion."

They quote Kanti as saying she would not follow "orders that seem to me retarded."

Ben Ari and Wolpo said Nitzan has called for the investigation of right-wing activists who have expressed more moderate opinions than the left-wing ones expressed by Kanti.

The Keshet channel, which broadcasts the show, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.