The anti-Israel tour of Canada by Arab Member of Knesset Basel Ghattas is being harshly criticized not only by Israeli Jewish politicians, but by a major figure in Israel’s Arab community.
Talab al-Sana suggested on Facebook that Ghattas was a hypocrite for advocating a total boycott of Israel at the World Social Forum in Montreal. Al-Sana asked, “If the boycott is the solution, why don’t you resign from the Israeli parliament? And how can you ask the world what you don’t ask of yourself?”
Al-Sana is Israel’s longest serving Arab parliamentarian, having sat in the Israeli Knesset from 1992 to 2013, when he lost his final bid for re-election. Ironically, al-Sana himself is known as somewhat of a firebrand, having been briefly arrested in November 2013 for his role in a violent protest against Israeli land policy in the country’s Negev Desert.
“Al-Sana’s condemnation of Ghattas clearly shows that Ghattas has crossed a red line with his latest antics,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “Ghattas’ Canadian tour, where he has collaborated with organizations that have antisemitic track records and advocated for a boycott of the state which pays his own salary, clearly merits some form of disciplinary action upon his return to Israel.”
On Tuesday, Ghattas delivered a speech at the Canadian Arab Society of London, Ont. The organization’s official Facebook page asserts that the Jewish State staged the November 2015 Paris attacks, and that no airplanes crashed into buildings on 9/11.
Thursday evening, Ghattas is set to address Beit Zatoun in downtown Toronto. In April, Beit Zatoun proudly hosted neo-Nazi Ken O’Keefe, who denied the Holocaust and accused the Jews of assassinating former American President John F. Kennedy.
