E-Paper
Martina Navratilova shares video of girl, 11, asking rabbi ‘kill yourself’, calls the anti-Semitism ‘pathetic’
The video shows the girl asking Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to "kill yourself” if “free Palestine” was a problem
Famed Tennis star Martina Navratilova was seemingly disgusted with a video showing a girl asking a rabbi to "kill yourself” if “free Palestine” was a problem. The incident took place in New York City’s Times Square. The girl is said to be 11 years old.
The video, showing the altercation between Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and the girl, garnered over 7.3 million views. It was posted at around 10:34 am ET on Sunday, December 24.
Shmuley shared a clip of the incident caught on camera, captioning it, “An "11-year-old" Muslim girl with her family walked over to me in Times Square and told me to kill myself because I’m a Jew. I am not making this up. You must watch this. They then had their small child kick me to humiliate me whole their daughter continued to say that I should kill myself. Identify who these people are.”
“Also, other passersby yelled at me that she’s white, and I should kill myself as a Jew. All of this happened right in the middle of New York City the night before Christmas. Anti Semitism is becoming unbelievably dangerous and deadly in the United States and around the world. We must fight this disease,” the rabbi added.
In the video, Shmuley tells the girl she will be reported to the police. On being asked to apologise, the girl says, “I'm not sorry.” Her mother, appearing to laugh, defends her daughter, saying, “She is 11.”
Navratilova reposted the video, captioning it, “Pretty sad. And the mother is laughing . Pathetic.”
Many ripped the girl and her family in the comment section of Shmuley’s post. “If she’s 11, I’m 21. Anyways, there’s a thing called juvenile detention facilities and she belongs in one of them. The parents should be visited by the Canadian version of CPS,” one user wrote. One user said, “The hate taught to these kids is truly heartbreaking,” while another wrote, “That ain’t no 11 year old. She’s lying. I am sorry that this happened to you.”
“The girl is so filled with hatred. It’s sad to see someone so young carry so much baggage. All heaped upon them by their parents and friends. It just further proves which people are doing all of the hating,” one user said, while another wrote, “This is Hate crime yet wheres the police? Why are they not behind bars? “I am so sorry this happened. It's painful to watch. It is ingrained at a young age in Islam to hate Jews.”
