Israelis call for Arab member of Israeli parliament to be killed

Israel’s Likud Party and other extremist settlers yesterday called for the killing of the Arab member of the Israeli Knesset Hanin Zoabi, Al-Araby Al-Jadid reported.

About 300 protesters took to the streets of the city of Haifa to protest against attempts to open a Palestinian cultural institution.

Zoabi is a Knesset member for the National Democratic Assembly‏, an Arab-Israeli party founded by Azmi Bishara. The protesters chanted against Zoubi and called the founder of her political party, who is living in exile, a “terrorist”.

The organisers of the rally said on their Facebook page that they are originally protesting against the establishment of an Arabic cultural centre in Haifa. They claim that this centre would reinforce the Palestinian narrative for the Nakba.

In their protest, they called for expelling the Arabs from their homes and called establishing a Palestinian cultural centre a “kidnapping operation” for the city.

They claimed that there are no Palestinians or Palestinian heritage in Haifa. “There are only 30,000 Arab Israelis, not Palestinians,” they said. They chanted: “Haifa is a Jewish city, no for dividing Haifa and [Arabs] have to go to Gaza.”

In addition, they signed a petition calling for the Jewish mayor of the city to fire the Arabic municipal member Suhail Assad.

Zoubi filed a complaint against the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accusing him of inciting and calling for assassinating her.