"In it for herself": radical Arab MK Hanin Zo
"In it for herself": radical Arab MK Hanin ZoFlash 90

The state prosecutor has submitted a recommendation to the Attorney General to prosecute radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), for inciting violence against police officers, according to Channel 10.

The charges apparently relate to footage earlier this year in which Zoabi can be seen verbally abusing two Arab Israeli police officers in Nazareth, and urging Arab youths to attack them.

Her comments included: "They are cooperating against their own people, we need to clean the floor with them," "let them fear from the shabab (youth)," and "we need to spit on their faces."

In asking the AG to press charges, the prosecution was in turn adopting the recommendations made back in August by the Israel Police Force's Lahav 433 unit, which had called for the notorious MK to be prosecuted for incitement to violence, issuing threats and insulting a public officer.

Zoabi had initially refused to show up for questioning, claiming she had "no time," but finally showed up for investigation at a Lod police station after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ordered her to do so.   

This latest development means the ball is firmly in the court of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to decide whether to bring the Balad MK to trial.

For her part, Zoabi claims it was police, not her, who used violence during their arrests of several minors in Nazareth who were suspected of carrying out criminal activity.

History of controversy

Zoabi is no stranger to controversy; the radical anti-Zionist MK has expressed sympathy towards Hamas and generally projected antagonism to Israel on multiple occasions.

Among other things she has said that Israel has “no right to a normal life,” and that “the Israeli occupation” was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria. She has also declared that Israel should "thank her" for allowing Jews to live in the Jewish State. 

The anti-Israel MK raised a furor in June after making a series of remarks defending Hamas's brutal abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Sha'ar hy''d. In the remarks, Zoabi refused to call their murderers "terrorists," and insisted that the abduction was a "legitimate" way to "fight the occupation." 

Those comments eventually earned her a six-month ban from the Knesset plenum, which she recently began serving.

Shortly after, Zoabi published an article on Hamas's official website encouraging an Islamist uprising against Israel. She also recently was briefly handcuffed during violent pro-Palestinian protests in Haifa. 

More recently, she provoked anger after comparing the IDF to ISIS.