During an appeal to end violence against women, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu somehow wound up rambling about animal rights and comparing the two; suggesting that “women are animals… with rights.”
He veered off script after he seemed to imply that pets could be hit by their owners, and scrambled to undo the damage: “Women don’t belong to you, women are not an animal you can hit,” he said, quickly adding, “And today we say you don’t hit animals either.”
After an excruciating pause in which the Prime Minister seemed to search for what to say next, he made the bold (and infinitely unwise) choice to dig in.
“We understand (animals) have insight and there is intelligence and there is cognition and animals have feelings,” he said.
“We are rightfully compassionate toward animals, we really connect to this,” he said, gesturing painfully toward his wife, Sara.
“So, if we are compassionate toward animals — women are animals. Children are animals. Animals with rights, and this matter needs to pass from the world and I hope we don’t see these shocking things,” he finally concluded.
Netanyahu at event marking International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: “A woman isn’t an animal you can beat, & nowadays we say don’t hit animals. We have compassion for animals, women are animals, children are animals, with rights.” pic.twitter.com/jwfLH6aYqU
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) November 23, 2020
Read the article by in Women’s Agenda.