Arab MKs attend Hamas 'victory rally'

Balad MKs Jamal Zehalka, Haneen Zoabi and United Arab list head Ibrahim Sarsur sing Palestinian national anthem at event.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Hanin Zoabi (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Hanin Zoabi
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Balad MKs Jamal Zehalka and Haneen Zoabi, and United Arab list head Ibrahim Sarsur, sang the Palestinian national anthem at a victory rally for Hamas on Friday at the Kabul Regional Council southeast of Acre.
Palestinian flags draped the event, which was held under the banner “Gaza won.” Some 2,000 people attended the event, which was organized by the Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership.
A moment of silence was observed for victims of IDF strikes on Gaza.
Zoabi called upon “the occupier” to do some soul searching following Operation Protective Edge. She referred to the Gazan casualties as the “2,000 martyrs who were killed among my people.”
“The Palestinian resistance and the entire nation in Gaza defeated the military and political targets Israel set for itself,” Zoabi told Ynet. “The struggle of our people prevented [Israel] from achieving its goals and that is the result of the war. Israelis must learn the lesson that no military power can defeat a nation that wants to live.”
MKs on the Right slammed Zoabi and the other Arab lawmakers who attended the rally. Yisrael Beytenu MK Alex Miller accused Zoabi of having “an obsession with supporting terrorist organizations.”
“On the one hand, she is elected by citizens of Israel, but on the other she encourages the destruction of Israel, which pays her salary,” Miller said. “It is already beyond ideology. It is a fetish that makes one wonder whether she has mental problems. The time has come for her to exempt us from her problems and hospitalize herself.”