Jerusalem – Calls For Haifa Deputy Mayor’s Appointment To Be Cancelled Because Of Pro-Hamas, Hezbollah Comments

Haifa, Israel – The appointment of Raja Za’atra as deputy mayor of Haifa has kicked up a storm with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who are among those calling for the appointment to be cancelled due to comment’s by the former Joint Arab List spokesman in which he compared the Islamic State to the Zionist movement and claimed Hamas was not a terrorist organization.

In 2015, the head of the Hadash list in the city said at a panel at Bar Ilan University that the Islamic State had learned from the Zionist movement in 1948 “the rape, the looting, the murder.”

In a subsequent interview with Army Radio, he repeated the comments about ISIS and said that Hamas was not a terrorist organization because “every people under occupation has the right to resist.”

In 2012, Za’atra also set up a local BDS chapter encouraging the boycott of Israel among Israeli Arabs. In a Facebook post at the time, Za’atra said the movement was demanding the removal of settlements and the withdrawal of all lands captured by Israel in 1967, recognition of the “rights of refugees” and termination of the what he called the “regime of racist discrimination in Israel.”

Za’atra is scheduled to take up the post in the second half of newly elected Haifa mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem’s five year term as part of a coalition agreement in the mixed Jewish-Arab city.

Netanyahu said Sunday that he had asked Kalisch-Rotem to annul the appointment of the deputy mayor “who supports Hezbollah and Hamas, organizations that declare their wish to destroy the state of Israel.”

On Friday, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri said he was looking into whether he had legal recourse as Interior Minister to block the appointment.

“Raja Za’atra, a Haifa councilman, has expressed support for Hezbollah and Hamas and supported a boycott of Israel, as well as supporting actions against Israel as a democratic and Jewish state. Such a person can not be a paid deputy mayor as the Haifa mayor has requested,” Deri said. “I have asked the Attorney General to examine whether it is in my prerogative to prevent the appointment and I hope he authorizes me to do so.”

Responding to Deri and Netanyahu’s comments, Za’atra said: “I am neither a member of Hezbollah nor Hamas, but of the Israeli Communist Party and Hadash, which advocate peace, equality and fraternity between peoples. Netanyahu and his corrupt government are trying to divert public opinion. The real danger to Israel is not to be found at the Haifa municipality, but at 10 Balfour Street [the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem]. By the time I become deputy mayor, Netanyahu and Deri will probably be in prison.”