Hazan confronts prisoners' families
Photo: Oren Hazan's twitter account
Hazan confronts Palestinian prisoners' families
Likud MK boards a bus taking relatives to visit Palestinian security prisoners imprisoned in Israel and shouts abuse at them, calling the inmates 'terrorists who belong in the ground.'
The Red Cross said on Monday Israel has a duty to guarantee the safety and dignity of Palestinian families visiting prisoners, after Likud MK Oren Hazan was
filmed shouting abuse aboard a bus taking relatives to a family visit in an Israeli jail.
Hazan has a record of staging publicity stunts, including crashing a welcoming ceremony
for visiting US President Donald Trump. He once agreed to stage a fistfight at the border
with a member of Jordan’s parliament, only to cancel it on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hazan boarded the bus at the Gaza border with video crews in tow. He said on Twitter he told the relatives that the prisoners were "terrorists who belong in the ground." In a video clip on social media, he is seen shouting at one prisoner’s mother that her son was an "insect" and a "dog."
"An insect?" she yelled back. "My son is the best of men. A dog is whoever calls him a dog."
Hazan in heated argument with family member of security prisoner (Photo: Oren Hazan's twitter account)
The families on the bus were on their way to Nafha prison in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in a convoy escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a statement, the ICRC said it "takes very seriously what happened today."
Red Cross escorts the bus back to Gaza
"Families have the right to visit their loved ones in a dignified manner," Suhair Zakkout, Gaza spokeswoman for the ICRC, said in the statement. "It is the responsibility of the competent authorities to ensure that the visits take place safely and without interference."
The families returned to Gaza after their visitation and were received by senior Hamas figure Fathi Hamad, who expressed his appreciation to them for continuing to support their detained relatives and the Palestinian struggle, handing them flowers as a show of thanks.
Fathi Hamad thanks the visitors
Hazan, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said he confronted the relatives to promote legislation to cancel such family visits until Israeli citizens held in Gaza and the remains of IDF troops were returned.
"As I promised, I went up without fear to the Hamas bus who came to visit the scum they call a family," Hazan tweeted. "In our heated meeting, I told them that the terrorists' place was underground. And no, I did not mean in tunnels.
"I will continue to promote the bill to strip away security prisoners' visitation rights and will continue to fight for the elimination of the rights of terrorists until our brethren are returned to Israel and in general."
Hazan waiting for the bus (Photo: Oren Hazan's twitter account)
Hamas, the dominant terror group in the Gaza Strip, has acknowledged holding three Israeli civilians who crossed into the enclave. In addition, Israel is seeking the return of the remains of two soldiers who were killed in the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
Hamas has demanded the release of its members who were re-arrested and imprisoned by Israel in 2014 for alleged security offenses after being released in a 2011 swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Israel’s Prisons Service declined comment on the incident.
The families on the bus (Photo: Oren Hazan's twitter account)
Maximum security Nafha prison, in south Israel, is used mainly to hold Palestinians convicted of terror offenses.
Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoner Club that advocates on behalf of Palestinians held by Israel, branded Hazan a "fanatic" but said Israel’s government "bears responsibility for this brutal action."
