Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
It is deeply disturbing, undemocratic, dangerous that the Israeli Supreme Court reversed the decisions of the Knesset’s Central Elections Committee, and reinstated the treasonous Arab Raam-Balad party’s ability to run in the upcoming Knesset elections; reinstated the Arab Communist party’s token Jewish candidate Offer Kassif, who compares Israel to Nazis.
ZOA previously detailed the Arab Balad party’s and Offer Cassif’s traitorous conduct and hateful statments.
Among other things, the Balad convention last month opened with party leaders’ stating that Balad is “an inseparable part of the Palestinian national movement”; the singing of the Palestinian national anthem calling for revenge, crossing the borders, struggling for “Palestine, my country” with fire and guns, and swearing to live and die as revolutionaries until they are “back” in Palestine; and greetings from two treasonous Balad former Knesset members – Azmi Bishara, who spied for Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War, and Basel Ghattas, who was convicted for exploiting his Knesset immunity to smuggle 15 cell phones, SIM cards and notes to jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who murdered Jews – to enable the terrorists to direct further terror operations from prison. Balad Party leader, MK Haneen Zoabi, who participated in the Gaza flotilla operation against Israel, and stated that Hamas’s murder of 3 Jewish teenagers was not terrorism, admitted: “I don’t see myself as an Israeli Member of Knesset, but as a Palestinian. We are using the Knesset to advance the Palestinian struggle… [and] we are doing this from within ‘Occupied Palestine.’” Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka called on PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas to lift sanctions on Hamas in Gaza, and to end security coordination with Israel.
Balad is also using lawfare to silence those who comment on its treacherous acts and statements. Balad is currently suing an Israeli journalistwho wrote that Balad is a “terror-supporting organization with party funding.”
It is a travesty that a party that allies itself with terrorists, abuses the legal system to silence resulting criticism, and is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, is permitted to run in the Knesset elections.
It is also ludicrous that Arab Hadash party’s Offer Cassif is permitted to run. Cassif calls Jews who visit the Temple Mount (Judaism’s holiest site) a “cancer with metastases that have to be eradicated.” How is that not incitement and “racism”?
Cassif was also taped telling his Hebrew University preparatory class that Israeli policies and laws were comparable to those of Nazi Germany. He also called Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked “neo-Nazi scum”; called Culture Minister Miri Regev “repulsive gutter contamination”; called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “arch-murderer”; and called IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi a “war criminal.” Cassif also agreed that “today’s Hamas commanders who are carrying out attacks on [Israeli] soldiers will be heroes of the future Palestinian state,” and repeatedly defames and demonizes Israel and Zionism with every imaginable calumny – and much more.
It is a huge tragedy and travesty that Israel’s Supreme Court has given enemies of Israel and the Jewish people a free pass.