Interior minister denies reports that he’s employing ex-Meretz MK as an adviser

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel’s office denies having hired former Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi as an adviser amid a pair of reports claiming as much.

Channel 14 reported yesterday that Rinawie Zoabi has been participating in meetings with Arab municipal officials, presenting herself as an adviser to Arbel. Arbel’s office told the network that they never hired her, and Zoabi did not respond to Channel 14’s request for comment.

This evening, Channel 12 reports that Zoabi has actually been appointed as an Interior Ministry adviser for municipal affairs, filling a position located in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Arbel’s office says it was not contacted for comment, and the report did not cite a source or include a response from Zoabi.

Arbel’s office told this reporter yesterday that Zoabi is not employed in any way by the Interior Ministry, and neither does she work for the ministry as an outside consultant.

In July, Zoabi posted a photograph showing her alongside Arbel during what she said was a tour of hospitals. She said Arbel, who also serves as minister of health, had invited her on the tour.

Zoabi helped cause the break-up of the previous unity government last year after voting against extending the application of Israeli criminal law to West Bank settlements.