Joint List defends ‘terrible meeting,’ condemns backlash

At a press conference held by the Joint List Knesset faction, MK Jamal Zahalka defends a meeting he and two other MKs had with families of slain Palestinian attackers, saying that what he referred to sarcastically as a “terrible meeting” was only held to help them get bodies back for burial.

Zahalka calls the issue a humanitarian one and says he was only serving his constituency.

He says any other characterization of the meeting, which has drawn widespread condemnation as a show of support for terror, as “lies.”

Joint List head Ayman Odeh also calls the issue an ethical and humanitarian one, and blasts new legislation that would seek to clamp down on such activity.

“The Joint List strongly condemns the wild incitement and string of delegimitization and demonization against the Arab community and its leadership,” he says.