Likud MK wants Arab colleague barred over claims attacks on IDF aren’t terror

Likud MK Nava Boker on Sunday asked the Knesset Ethics Committee to suspend an Arab Israeli lawmaker for stating that Palestinians who attack Israel Defense Forces soldiers, as opposed to civilians, should not be considered terrorists.

A member of the Zionist Union faction, Zouheir Bahloul sparked controversy last week when he compared Palestinian fighters to Jewish militias fighting British soldiers during the Mandate area.

“Bahloul has put a target on all soldiers. No explanation can hide the fact that a Zionist Union Knesset member endorsed the spilling of soldiers’ blood,” Boker said during an Army Radio interview Sunday morning.

Calling his remarks “reprehensible and amounting to incitement,” Boker said she would withdraw her complaint if Bahloul apologized.

On Thursday, Bahloul said the Palestinian assailants who stabbed a Israeli soldier in Hebron last month should not be considered terrorists because the attack was on an military target. The Hebron incident made international headlines and sparked a national debate after a video emerged of an IDF soldier shooting one of the attackers — who was injured and on the ground — in the head. The shooting occurred several minutes after the attack ended. The other assailant was killed earlier during the attack.

The soldier, whose identity is under a gag order, now faces manslaughter charges, and is being held on an IDF base.

Bahloul doubled down on his controversial comments on Saturday, saying that Israeli soldiers were “a symbol of the occupation” to Palestinians.

“What can a Palestinian, suffocating under the yoke of occupation for 49 years, do in order regain his freedom? The soldiers are, for him, a symbol of the occupation. Before 1948, there was the British Mandate here. Etzel, Lehi and the other Jewish organizations went out to the street to fight British soldiers and build your state, which is an amazing state. Why are the Palestinians not allowed to do so?” asked the former sports broadcaster and journalist at a cultural event in the northern city of Acre.

The Zionist Union also sought to distance itself from Bahloul’s comments, saying the remarks were not representative of the party’s platform. In the wake of his remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior lawmakers also harshly criticized Bahloul.

On Saturday, senior faction MK Eitan Cabel said there was “no place for Bahloul in Labor,” and charged that his remarks intended to harm the Zionist Union list.

Labor is the greater partner in the Zionist Union, which was formed when Labor united with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party ahead of the March 2015 Knesset elections.

Party leader Isaac Herzog last week said he “rejects and strongly condemns his statements,” while Netanyahu on Facebook called the remarks “shameful.”

In an effort to clarify his comments, Bahloul told Army Radio that in Israel, the “word ‘terrorist’ has become all-inclusive,” and that every Palestinian was now suspected of being a potential terrorist. “All those who struggle for their freedom and independence are considered terrorists by Israelis.”

The MK drew a distinction between Palestinians who attack civilians and those who attack soldiers. “I agree that a person who takes the lives of members of a whole family is a terrorist. They are terrorists and murderers who deserve punishment,” Bahloul said.

Bahloul’s remarks come amid a six-month wave of Palestinian violence against Israelis, in which 29 Israelis, four foreign nationals and some 190 Palestinians have been killed, with around two-thirds of Palestinians deaths occurring while attacking Israelis, according to the Israeli army.