Unruly Likud MK said disinvited from meeting with Palestinian lawmakers

The Palestinian Authority reportedly threatened not to attend a meeting with Israeli lawmakers in the United Kingdom next week if a controversial Likud MK was present.

According to a Hadashot TV news report Tuesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office explicitly requested right-wing Israeli MKs be invited to the event, which is being sponsored by the British group Forward Thinking.

However, upon learning that one of the lawmakers invited to the meeting was Oren Hazan, the PA said it would not send its delegation of senior officials if the Likud MK were to attend, the news channel reported.

Due to the Palestinian opposition, Forward Thinking relented, with Hazan now set to sit out the meeting, the report said.

Hazan, who has gained a reputation as a troublemaker since entering the Knesset in 2015, has drawn the ire of Palestinians for a number of his antics.

Last month, Hazan led a small group of protesters in blocking buses carrying Palestinians from Gaza on their way to visit their relatives in an Israeli prison, during which he referred to the inmates’ relatives as the “families of these animals” and said the prisoners deserved to be “underground.”

Hazan was given extra security following the incident after a spokesperson for the Hamas terror group’s military wing lashed out at the Likud MK.

In October, Hazan appeared to call for the assassination of Abbas in a Facebook post in which he suggested the PA chief was on his way to meeting the same fate as a number of figures from his Fatah party who were killed by Israel.

Hazan has also squared off with Arab Israeli lawmakers, most recently calling Joint (Arab) List MKs “terrorists” on Monday for brandishing signs during US Vice President Mike Pence’s speech to the Knesset reading “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.”

Responding to Tuesday’s TV report, Hazan said the PA is “afraid” of him.

“When Abu Akbar [Abbas], chairman of the Palestinian people, declares a boycott against you it means only one thing: They’re a-f-r-a-i-d,” he wrote on Facebook, alluding to a 1990s speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was not clear why Hazan referred to Abbas, who is often known in Israel by his Arabic nom de guerre Abu Mazen, as Abu Akbar.

The report said the Israeli delegation will be headed by Zionist Union MK Hilik Bar and include Kulanu MK Akram Hasson, Zionist Union MK Saleh Saad and Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen.