MK Ahmed Tibi attacks Israel in Chilean paper
In an op-ed for Chilean online paper El Dinamo, the Arab parliamentarian compares Israel's democracy to the dictatorship of Chile's ex-leader Augusto Pinochet.
Joint Arab List MK Ahmed Tibi expressed unusually harsh criticism of Israel in an op-ed he wrote on Friday for the Chilean online paper El Dinamo.
Tibi is known for lashing out at Israel from the Knesset podium but this time he chose the Chilean media as a forum, and he went so far as making a comparison between the rule of ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who murdered thousands of his own citizens, and the Israeli democracy.
In his op-ed, Tibi denounced the President of the Chilean chamber of deputies Marco Antonio Núñez who, during a visit to Israel, praised the Jewish state for being a democratic country. "For the honorable Mr. Núñez it does not matter that the same democracy is occupying the land of an entire population and systematically discriminates against non-Jews," wrote Tibi. "Consciously or unconsciously, he sent a message of support for the most extreme government in Israel's history."
Tibi also decried Núñez's meeting with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who in Tibi's words "lives in the settlement of Neve Daniel, on land that was stolen from Bethlehem, and who has recently encouraged a law designed to expel Arab MKs if a three-fourths majority (90 Knesset members) is reached. Is this the democracy Núñez is talking about?"
Tibi labled former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who lives in Gush Etzion in the West Bank, an "illegal settler born in Moldavia."
Israel's ambassador to Chile, Rafi Eldad, reported to the Foreign Ministry that the article caused great damage to the Israel, whose standing in Chile is delicate as it is. "I hope it does not harm other visits, such as the planned visit of six members of the Chilean parliament planned for the end of next month."
