MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) demanded on Thursday that extreme right-wing activist Baruch Marzel be banned from the Knesset after he posted a status the Arab MK interpreted as a thinly-veiled death threat.

Ahmed Tibi – Photo: REUTERS

Ahead of Yom Kippur, when Jews traditionally apologize for their sins from the past year, Marzel wrote: “The main desecration of God’s name, for which I must apologize, is that there are so many enemies among us that I have yet to expel, especially in Hebron.”

“I am sorry for the time I was in the Knesset and passed by Ahmed Tibi, may his name be erased, and did not do what was necessary,” Marzel added on Tuesday.

Marzel is the head of the Eretz Yisrael Shelanu Party, which is part of the National Union faction and represented in the Knesset by MK Michael Ben-Ari. The Boston-born activist and disciple of Rabbi Meir Kahane officially serves as Ben-Ari’s parliamentary aide.

Tibi responded on Thursday morning by sending letters to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and Knesset security chief Yosef Griff.

“This is a threat to murder, which cannot be ignored,” Tibi wrote. “It seems to me that the appropriate step is to forbid this despicable, racist type from entering the Knesset.”

The UAL-Ta’al MK added that many of Marzel’s Facebook fans shared his status and wrote violent comments. As such, Tibi said, Marzel must be investigated for incitement to violence.

According to Marzel, “only a twisted criminal mind like Tibi’s could understand my message in an illegal way as he did.”

“In any case,” he quipped, “I am glad that Tibi loses his appetite when he sees me in the Knesset.”

View original Jerusalem Post publication at: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=286313