Israeli Manager Commits Suicide after FB Slander

JERUSALEM, Israel -- A long-time Israeli Interior Ministry manager committed suicide over the weekend after being maligned on Facebook as a racist.

The tragedy brought into focus how deadly slander over social media can be.

Ariel Ronis, 47, whose co-workers and family described him as the opposite of a racist, was overcome by 6,000 responses to a Facebook post by an African American with Israeli citizenship who said she was the victim of racism, the Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported.

"It's not good to be a black mother in the Interior Ministry," she wrote in a Facebook post describing what she perceived as discrimination when she applied for a passport for her son.

Israel's Channel 10 aired an interview with her, later stating the interview followed all the conventional rules of journalism.

In a post of his own, Ronis explained, "She demanded immediate service and started to shout that not getting what she wanted was racism."

"There is a line for mothers with young children and she had to wait in it like all the other mothers," he wrote.

"About a year ago, I and some good friends of all religions established an organization that called for equality of all citizens of the state. And now, this woman has accused me of racism," he explained. "I told her that was enough. I wasn't willing to let her take it in that direction, not in my office."

"Not everything you ask for and don't get is racism," he continued. "Nothing helped and the lady kept shouting that it was racism."

"A few hours later, [her] post appeared and the media circus started," he said, describing each comment as "an arrow in my flesh."

Ronis said his friends and family supported him, but they were few compared to the "number who don't know me and rushed to judge."

"My name, which I worked for years to build, is now synonymous with the worst title that could be imagined for me -- racist," he wrote, ending the post with "Be well."

Ronis killed himself with a single bullet to the head. His father later said he wasn't angry at the woman who complained, but rather "at the 6,000 users with no conscience who didn't verify things before they made their poisonous responses."

The woman later said she was "sorry about the loss of life," claiming she'd been discriminated against many times in Israel.

"The one time I told my story, a person was hurt. If I could, I would have stayed quiet this time too," she said.

One Interior Ministry director pointed out, "Words kill."