Israeli MK condemned for ‘despicable’ parody video where he kills Arab leader
Board of Deputies condemns 'disgusting' clip by Israeli politician Oren Hazan which depicts him shooting Balad MK Jamal Zahalka.
British Jewish leaders have joined the international “disgust” after a lawmaker formerly in Benjamin Netanyahu’s party posted an election video showing him shooting and killing the chairman of an Arab Israeli party.
The Board of Deputies were one of many Jewish groups to denounce as “despicable” a video from MK Oren Hazan which shows him in a Western-type video shooting Balad MK Jamal Zahalka.
The Balad MK subsequently asked Israel’s election committee and social media companies to remove the advert because it incites violence. “It is a call for murder,” said Zahalka. “In an atmosphere which fuels incitement against the Arab public, and its representatives, this is dangerous.”
It is the latest provocative Israeli campaign advert in a bizarre election during which right-wing candidates are vying with each other to be seen as the most ethno-nationalist, and comes after New Right lawmaker MK Ayelet Shaked launched a video in which she is shown spraying herself with a perfume called Fascism.
Condemning Hazan for “crossing the line” this week was Board of Deputies’ president Marie van der Zyl, who was silent over Netanyahu’s embrace of right-wingers whose hero advocated expelling non-Jews from Israel.
She said: “Oren Hazan’s video is disgusting. Depicting murder is beyond despicable. This, from the same person who we had to condemn after he spoke approvingly about China’s use of concentration camps against its Muslim population. We endorse calls for investigations by the relevant authorities.”
In recent years he has said “there is no such thing as the Palestinian people” and has advocated Marine Le Pen of France’s far-right Front National party.
In 2017 he stopped a bus carrying Palestinian family members to an Israeli prison for visiting, climbing on board and yelling that Palestinian prisoners were “insects” who “belong in the ground”. Last year, he took aim at African immigrants and appeared to suggest that Israel should stop them having children.
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