MK Taleb el-Sana
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
Probe launched into threats against MK El-Sana
Anonymous callers threaten Arab lawmaker: 'We’ll kill you like we killed Rabin.' El-Sana charges that in current crisis situation, Jewish public using Arabs as scapegoat ‘like in Germany when Nazis rose to power’
Chairman of the United Arab List-Ta’al MK Taleb el-Sana requested Monday that the Knesset security administration investigate threats against his life, apparently by extremist Jewish elements. The anonymous warnings included such statements as, “Your end is near,” “We will murder you like we murdered Rabin,” and “Your place is not in the Knesset but under the ground.”
In a conversation with Ynet, el-Sana sounded extremely concerned. “This is a dangerous phenomenon. According to what we see here, people think they can argue with whoever disagrees with the war and that the Arabs are a fifth column. The attempt to criminalize those with other opinions is dangerous, and is a short cry from fascism.”
El-Sana said he received threats after an exchange of words in the Knesset with Defense Minister Amir Peretz. “During his speech I received a phone call from an unidentified number and they started to threaten and curse me. I hung up, but the same person called my assistants again and again,” he said.
According to el-Sana’s claims, numerous faxes were sent to his office bearing slogans such as: “Fifth column,” “Traitors,” “To the gallows,” and “We’ll demolish you.”
“These are all the same slogans familiar to us from Right-wing politicians, and therefore I filed a complaint with Knesset security and they opened an investigation,” he said.
He expressed anger over criticism of him and his colleagues in parliament. “Why do they come to us with complaints? We didn’t found Hizbullah – it was Israel that led to its founding in 1982. We didn’t bring Nasrallah – Israeli did when it assassinated the previous secretary general Abbas Musawi. We didn’t strengthen the organization – Israel did,” he said.
‘Like Nazi Germany’
El-Sana then launched into a diatribe of historical comparisons: “When there is a crisis in a country, there is the tendency to blame everything on the minority. This is what happened in Germany in the ‘30s when the Nazis rose to power. It must be remembered that we (Israeli Arabs) are victims of Katyushas and of Hizbullah too, but also of Israeli fascism. The country is experiencing a crisis reminiscent of that in Germany in the ‘30s. If Amir Peretz has come to the point where MKs (Effi) Eitam and (Avigdor) Leiberman are rooting for him, then that shows the state we’re in.”
A-Sana claimed Israeli society suffers from paranoia. “There is a feeling of false threat here. Does a Hizbullah Katyusha threaten Israel’s existence, a country that has nuclear weapons? If that is what threatens Israel, then Israel is truly as weak as a spider’s web as Nasrallah said. Hizbullah is not even the whole country of Lebanon, but a mere organization.”
A-Sana didn’t leave the media out of his criticism, which he compared to that in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. “The media is becoming an IDF mouthpiece and everyone here exalts the army like in Iraq under Saddam. This is a false union and is very dangerous.”
The lawmaker purported an explanation for the IDF’s reaction to the kidnapping of the soldiers. “The incident was painful, it’s true, but we have here a hysterical and disproportionate response. This could come from when Jews felt persecuted in the ghettoes. Maybe this should be examined anthropologically,” el-Sana said.
