On Sunday, Hanin Zoabi, a Palestinian member of Knesset, was escorted by Israeli military as she visited Hebron (Al-Khalil in Arabic). The clip surfaced on YouTube.com over the weekend, and was shared throughout the right-wing blogosphere. In the video, the camera follows Zoabi walking through the street where she is mobbed by hard-line settlers who yell "terrorist" and "traitor" at her.
Throughout, Issa Amro of Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements, holds her protectively.
The attacks come one week after Zoabi met with the Israeli high court regarding criminal charges she is facing for being a passenger aboard the Turkish boat the Mavi Marmara in the 2010 flotilla attacked by Israeli commandoes who killed 9 passengers. The few pro-settler websites that covered the Knesset member's visit to Hebron all mention the flotilla, and indicate settlers attacked Zoabi due to her participation in the six-vessel fleet of aid to Gaza.
Look at how overly racist Israelis are. Tell me again how Palestinians are treated fairly once they have Israeli citizenship.
I noticed some of the guys from the Documentary “Israel: Rise of the Right” in the crowd of racist settlers shouting at Zoabi. Nice to see they’re still doin’ their thing. Puke.
I think the context is the recent attack on the visiting party of Jan Björklund, Education Minister of Sweden, who visited Israel and West Bank and educational trip to Hebron which is highly recommended by his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar . It so happens that Björklund is the most pro-Israeli minister in the government of Sweden, it was explained that UNESCO delegate of Sweden responds to him and thus voted “NO” on PA application for full membership in UNESCO. (Like Israel, Sweden has a coalition government). The party included a member of Swedish Council of Churches, several Swedish security guys and — how did that happen??? — a Palestinian. Much to Björklund’s surprise, the welcome from the local Jewish population was far from warm, the Palestinian was spotted and and elderly Jewish women attacked Björklund. At least this is how Swedes perceived it. She did not land any punches on the minister, but managed to land several on a body guard who promptly placed her prone on the ground, and there was much heckling, and IDF personnel that was present ejected the visiting party from the Jewish part of Hebron.
The story was apparently to boring for anybody outside Sweden but some details are here: link to thelocal.se