Almog Cohen (Hebrew: אלמוג כהן; born 12 January 1988[1]) is an Israeli far-right politician,[2][3][4] former police officer, and militia founder from the city of Beersheba in the Negev region. He has served as a member of the Knesset for Otzma Yehudit since 2022.[5] He has served as a regional coordinator for the party.[6] Owing to his police and militia background, Cohen acquired nicknames including "the sheriff" and "the warrior from the Negev" within the party.[7][8]
Prior to his political career, Cohen organized a militia force in the Negev region, which was created to "fight crime among Bedouins".[9] Following his entry into politics, Cohen was accused of police brutality by a Negev Bedouin family after he posted a photo showing himself involved in a 2013 arrest.[10] Ahead of the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Cohen removed wide traces of his digital footprint, including calls to "wash the streets of Gaza with blood".[7] In 2022, he claimed that the alleged 2021 rape by a Negev Bedouin of a 10-year-old Jewish girl in her home is what made him become an activist.[7][11]
After entering the Knesset following the 2022 election, Cohen briefly served on the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before being removed by party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir over insubordination.[12] In January 2023, Cohen was suspended from Twitter for his calls to "keep killing them" following a raid in the Jenin refugee camp that led to the deaths of nine Palestinians.[13] In February 2023, Cohen broadcast a rant in the Knesset in which he compared Arab MKs to animals;[14] he was subsequently reprimanded by the Knesset's ethics panel.[15]
Early life and education
Cohen was born in Be'er-Sheva and lives in Ofakim.[16] Cohen is a graduate of the Afiki Eretz yeshiva of Bnei Akiva in Ofakim. His grandfather, Rabbi Eliyahu Hadad, was a rabbi in Tunis.[17] During his time in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he served in the Target Intelligence Unit.[18]
Police and militia career
Cohen worked as a police officer for 11 years.[19] After retiring from the police, Cohen became owner of the Pancake House, a restaurant in Be'er-Sheva. Cohen stated that after opening the Pancake House in 2018, the Bedouin threatened his personal safety.[20]
Cohen is the leader of the Negev Rescue Committee,[21] which planned to establish the "Barel Rangers", a civilian armed militia force in the Negev, in which nearly 200 recruits had been enlisted.
Cohen's militia was created for the purpose of "fight[ing] crime among Bedouins", with Cohen posting a photo of him kneeling over three Bedouins with the caption “Those down there remember what I did in the army.” Cohen endorsed an operation aimed at Bedouins in the Naqab, which he called “Crystal Night".[9]
However, in response to public backlash, the police withdrew their endorsement of its registration for the status of "police volunteers", causing the Beersheba municipality to order the cession of the establishment of the militia.[22][23]
In 2022, a Negev Bedouin family called for the re-opening of a police brutality investigation into Cohen over a 2013 incident. The family accused Cohen of having violently assaulted them.[10] The three individuals claimed that Cohen assaulted their groin areas, urinated on their faces, and threatened them with "a bullet to the head". The men stated they were able to identify Cohen as the perpetrator owing to a social media post in which he posted photo of him kneeling over them.[25]
Political career
Cohen became a regional coordinator for Otzma Yehudit, and acquired the nickname "the sheriff" within the party owing to his law enforcement and militia background.[7] Ahead of the 2022 Israeli legislative elections, he was placed seventh on the list led by Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party.[26] He was successfully elected an MK after the list won 14 seats.[27]
Knesset tenure
Cohen (second from right) joins other members of the Otzma Yehudit faction to meet President Isaac Herzog
Following his election to the Knesset in 2022, Cohen suggested in an interview that then-outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid deserved to be thrown in prison. In a televised interview, Cohen stated "[i]n a proper country [Lapid] would be behind bars".[28]
Shortly after taking office, Cohen introduced legislation in the Knesset to bar NGOs from receiving donations from organizations who are funded by countries that do not recognize Israels' sovereignty.[29] Cohen has endorsed a blanket ban on the use of TikTok in East Jerusalem, calling the platform “a crazy incitement zone that is creating the next terrorist.”[30]
In February 2023, Cohen confronted protestors at a demonstration at Tel Aviv University, where a group of students held a protest in opposition to the recent army raid in Jenin. During the confrontation, Cohen attempted to tear a Palestinian flag away from one of the protestors.[31] Cohen co-sponsored legislation in 2023 to make flying an enemy flag a criminal offense punishable by a year in jail, which would include displays of the Palestinian flag.[32][33]
Removal from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
In June 2023, Cohen was ousted from the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, with fellow Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech taking his place. Cohen had reportedly had a falling-out with Ben-Gvir the prior month over his criticism of an ultimatum made by the party leader regarding the national budget. Ben-Gvir had threatened the government's budget plans if they did not allocate increased funds for the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee. Cohen broke with Ben-Gvir by indicating he would vote for the budget agreement regardless.[12]
Political views
Cohen has been described as a far-right politician by The New York Times.[3] Prior to his election to the Knesset, Cohen expressed several extremist views on social media. In a deleted post, Cohen called for soldiers and policemen to kill, instead of arrest, Palestinian suspects, and called "to wash the streets of Gaza with blood".[7]
Views on Palestinians
Cohen has referred to Palestinian villages in the West Bank as "Palestinazi villages", and accused Palestinians of supporting a Nazi ideology. In 2023, Cohen claimed that "Palestinians are engaging in Nazism, in murdering Jews. There is a Nazi culture there". While Cohen conceded that he does not believe all Palestinians are Nazis, he alleged that social media platform TikTok was being used to spread Nazi ideology among Palestinians.[30] He called for the killing of Hamas and the invasion of Rafah (which people took as a call to kill Palestinians) in the Ramadan.[34]
In since-deleted posts, Cohen expressed strong opposition to pride parades, stating that "the pride parade is a completely animalistic parade of unbridled and unrestrained sex partying, while harassing boys and minors". He added that he considers pride parades to be "a shocking spectacle of hard and sick porn".[8]
Controversies
January 2023 Twitter suspension
In January 2023, Twitter suspended Cohen's account following a tweet in which he expressed support for the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during a raid in Jenin that resulted in the deaths of nine Palestinians.[37]
In a tweet, Cohen praised the IDF, stating "Good and professional work by the fighters in Jenin, keep killing them." He criticized Twitter's decision to suspend his account, calling it "the worst kind of censorship". He went on to defend his statement, claiming that his intention was clearly to target "terrorists involved and not bystanders".[13]
February 2023 comments on Arab lawmakers
In February 2023, Cohen received public outcry for broadcasting a rant in which he compared Arab members of the Knesset to animals.[14] Cohen explicitly stated that MKs from the predominantly Arab Hadash–Ta'al alliance were "not worthy of being sheep, they’re not humans", and vowed to make "their lives miserable". The Times of Israel reported that Cohen was filmed "making animal calling sounds" to draw the attention of Ofer Cassif, the sole Jewish MP in the Hadash–Ta'al alliance.
Cohen refused to apologize for his rant, stating that his "goal is to make them feel uncomfortable" and that he considered them supporters of terrorism.[38] In March 2023, he was formally reprimanded for his comments by the Knesset's ethics committee, which led him to lose some parliamentary rights for two days.[15]
Personal life and public image
Owing to his background as the founder of the Negev Rescue Committee, Cohen was referred to as "the warrior from the Negev"[39] by Itamar Ben-Gvir. Cohen is married, with two children.[8]
^ ab"Israel Judicial Overhaul: Netanyahu Delays Plan to Overhaul Top Court". The New York Times. 2023-03-28. Far-right lawmaker Almog Cohen called for supporters of the judicial overhaul to join a counterprotest on Monday evening outside the Parliament building in Jerusalem, but echoed calls for nonviolence.
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