Actress Apologizes for Insulting Israelis in Anti-Bibi Rant
April 18, 2015Actress Anat Waxman has apologized for making offensive remarks against the Israeli public on Saturday night, nearly one week after she stated a derisive rant on Channel 2 against Likud voters.
Among other things, she referred to them as “the chocolates,” a reference to the infamous “chocolate” video that documented two drunk Israeli couples harassing an air steward who did not serve them chocolate when they demanded it.
She implied that Likud voters were “laborers” from “another nation” – perhaps a reference to Labor’s historical mistake of ignoring the working class in the early days of the State of Israel.
Many have attributed the oversight to racism, as the working class was traditionally of Sephardic or “Mizrahi” origin and Labor aligned itself primarily with the Ashkenazic elite class at the time; the “chocolate” incident also played on anti-Mizrahi stereotypes.
Comparisons have been made as well to the infamous speech by comedian Dudu Topaz at a Labor rally in 1981; he used an anti-Sephardic slur, “chahchahim,” to describe Likud voters, causing outrage.
On Saturday, however, Waxman insisted her remarks were not “racist.”
“I want to say that I did not say a single racist remark,” she said, in her apology on Channel 2. “The tone was the issue and for that I apologize.”
Waxman also begged the media and her detractors to leave her alone, after a boycott against her work was called for in the storm following her remarks.
Several Likud MKs denounced the rant earlier this week, including MK Miri Regev, Deputy Environmental Protection Minister MK Ofir Akunis, and MK Danny Danon (Likud); Waxman responded by defending herself on Facebook without apologizing.
Another surprising condemnation came from Labor MK Eitan Cabel, who suggested that Waxman’s mocking tone suggested a dire need for the Left to “clean house.”
“The situation also hurts me to no end, but I understand well that the time has come to check who is in our house, and not to choose the easy solution of insults and terrible statements, like that we’re talking about ‘another nation,'” Cabel suggested.
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