Arab MK to speak at UN ‘50 Years of Occupation’ conference

An Arab member of Israel’s Knesset will speak at a United Nations conference on “50 Years of Occupation.”

Aida Touma-Sliman of the Joint (Arab) List party will participate in the conference at the end of the month at the United Nations in New York. The event is sponsored by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, slammed Touma-Sliman’s participation, saying it is “shameful that a member of Knesset is abusing her position and is working together with the Palestinians to harm Israel at the UN.”

He added: “Her presence at this anti-Israel gathering, with the sole purpose of defaming our country, crosses all red lines.”

Touma-Sliman said in response that “Danon’s statement is the one crossing all red lines.”

“It’s time to expose the ugly face of the occupation,” she told the Ynet news site. “My job, as the representative of a public that supports the end of the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, is to make my voice heard on every stage possible.”