Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettIsrael news photo: Flash 90

MK Taleb Abu-Arar on Monday filed a complaint with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein against Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, claiming that he was a “racist,” over comments made by the latter during a heated exchange as the cabinet debated releasing more than 100 Arab terrorists as a "goodwill gesture" to the Palestinian Authority.

In his complaint, Abu-Arar said that he based his charges on an article in Yediot Achronot that appeared Monday. In the article, said Abu-Arar, Bennett was reported to have “made racist and inciteful statements against Israeli Arabs, advocating violence against them.”

The article described a discussion between Bennett and National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror during Sunday's cabinet meeting. According to the article, the discussion took place in the context of the vote by the cabinet Sunday to release terrorists. Bennett told Amidror that instead of keeping terrorists in jail in order to release them later, “they should simply be killed when they are caught.” Amidror respond by saying that such activities are illegal, with Bennett responding that he had “killed many Arabs and I never had a problem.”

Abu-Arar said that the comments clearly show that Bennett was not only a racist, but an advocate for murdering Arabs. “We cannot tolerate such comments, they must be examined and dealt with in the proper manner,” he said.