Israeli ‘Occupation Biggest Terror’ in Middle East, Far-left Lawmaker from Arab Party Claims

Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians is the region’s “biggest terror” threat, a far-left lawmaker in the Arab Joint List said Wednesday.

According to MK Ofer Cassif, there was a “very simple reason” for this and it has to do with the definition of terror. Israel’s accepted definition of terror is different to that of the world, which deems terror as a “a form of violence, including the threat of violence, against innocent civilians in order to achieve political aims,” he said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“The occupation,” Cassif charged, “acts against innocent civilians […] for political objectives.”

He made his remarks at an “anti-occupation” caucus at the Knesset in which far-left parliamentarians and NGO representatives gathered to discuss the alleged harm inflicted on the Palestinians by Israel since the 1967 defensive Six Day War which saw the Jewish state capture the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem from Jordanian occupation.

“The occupation is the biggest terror in the entire region, certainly when it comes to Palestine / Israel,” Cassif said.

Any individual who attempts to “ignore the fact that the “occupation is ‘the terror’ is either an ignoramus who doesn’t know what terror is or a liar who knows what terror is and is trying to hide it,” Cassif said.

He went as far as to say that even former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conceded that people who fought against military forces should be considered guerrillas and not terrorists.

“When such a terror exists there is resistance,” Cassif said, adding that there is “no such thing as a benign occupation.”

“No nation will live under a foreign government without resisting.”

Rightwing MK Amichai Chikli, who recently renegaded the Yamina party, slammed the comments.

According to the report, Chikli pushed back at the idea that Israel was an occupying force in its biblical heartland, explaining that Jews “are the natives of this area.”

Opening the bible and quoting from the Book of Kings, Chikli read, “David captured Jerusalem.”

Anti-Zionist Arab-Israeli Aida Touma-Suleiman, who chaired the event, said it was a “moral duty” to call for the “occupation’s dissolution.”

“It must be said in a sharp and clear voice, without compromise – enough with occupation, racism and apartheid,” she said.