Bennett condemns Arab-Israeli lawmakers for supporting Corbyn

“They have shown their true colors by going out of their way to voice unanimous support for a man who has been labelled an existential threat to the British Jewish community,” Bennett said of the Arab MKs.

By: World Israel News Staff

Minister of Education Naftali Bennett assailed members of the Joint Arab List who penned an op-ed voicing support for UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn, who continues to censure Israel and take the Palestinian side to the point of paying tribute to terrorists, is accused of anti-Semitism by, among others, senior Israeli politicians and former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

On Sunday, the UK’s Guardian published a letter signed by four Arab members of the Israeli parliament expressing support for the embattled leader of the British Labour Party, who has been contending with a series of exposures of his ties with Palestinian terrorists.

“There is no greater hypocrisy than that of Tibi, Zahalka and their supporters,” Bennett said in a statement released Tuesday, referring to MKs Ahmad Tibi and Jamal Zahalka, who signed the letter.

“They sit in the comfort of Israel’s democracy, living off Israeli taxpayers, while they spend their time not working to represent their constituents and improving the lives of Israel’s Arab community, but writing letters to the international media in support of anti-Semites and supporters of terror,” he charged.

“Indeed, they have shown their true colors by going out of their way to voice unanimous support for a man who has been labelled an existential threat to the British Jewish community. They have chosen to stand up for a man who honored the planners of the Munich massacre.

“So let’s be clear, today the Joint Arab List Members of Knesset have made clear they are supporters of anti-Semitism and terrorism,” Bennett stated.

The minister concluded by calling on Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset, “to censure in the strongest terms the activity of these MKs,” and especially Tibi, “who, as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, chose to use his position of honor in Israeli democracy to give legitimacy to voices of hatred and racism.”

On Monday, the Arab MKs traveled to the European Union parliament in Brussels, where they plan on seeking Israel’s condemnation for its recently approved nation-state law.