https://arab.news/ma3wt
- Arieh King was probed on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorism
- In a May post on X, King labeled UNRWA an ‘enemy in our holy city,’ accompanied by an image of one of the agency’s buildings engulfed in flames
LONDON: Israeli authorities have opened a formal investigation into Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Arieh King following a controversial social media post in which he attacked the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
King, an ultranationalist figure, was questioned for three hours last week on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorism, Israeli media reported.
The probe focused on a post King published in May, where he labeled UNRWA as an “enemy in our holy city.”
The investigation gained momentum after Israeli officials alleged that some UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 massacre.
In response, King organized protests outside the agency’s headquarters in Jerusalem’s Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood.
On May 5, the UNRWA office in the area was targeted in an arson attack, prompting the agency to close the facility.
“First, the UN headquarters in Ma’alot Dafna. Second will be the enemy headquarters in French Hill. And third will be the Nazi organization’s headquarters in Qalandiya,” King wrote in a post on X, referring to the agency’s other sites and accompanied by an image of the building on fire. “There is no place for the enemy in our holy city.”
King was also questioned about other posts, including one showing activists from the extremist Israeli group Tsav 9 vandalizing a humanitarian aid truck, to which he added the caption: “I salute you.”
According to sources familiar with the events, the Justice Ministry, rather than the police, initiated the investigation against King, citing his potential incitement to violence and terrorism.
The authorization for the probe, given in March, stated that “encouraging the torching of a building not only involves harm to property, but could also endanger human lives.”
King dismissed the accusations, describing his posts as “totally legitimate.”
This is not King’s first brush with controversy.
In August, he faced backlash for allegedly stoking far-right violence and tension in the UK after posting a cartoon depicting a Muslim man embracing a white British police officer.