MK Zoabi Calls for Mass Protests Over Imprisonment of Palestinian Teen

In response to the sentencing of a Palestinian teen to eight months in prison for assaulting an IDF soldier, MK Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi called on Thursday for a mass protest, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Zoabi defended Ahed Tamimi as a “brave teen” and said, “We are not waiting for the criminal [Israel] to understand. We need to force it to leave through a struggle. Only a mass struggle will liberate Ahed and the Palestinian people.”

Last week, the Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Zoabi from the Knesset for a week for calling IDF soldiers “murderers.” In 2014, she was suspended for six months, after she made statements justifying the kidnapping of three Israeli teens who were found to be murdered by Palestinians, and supported Hamas rocket attacks on Israel during Operation Protective Edge.

Meanwhile, the woman who slapped an IDF prosecutor at a hearing for Tamimi on Wednesday was ordered to be kept in custody while the police appeal her release.

Police identified her only as a resident of central Israel in her 40s.