MK Hanin Zoabi
MK Hanin ZoabiHadas Parush/FLASH90

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (Likud) excoriated Joint List MK Hanin Zoabi Wednesday, calling the anti-Israel legislator a “traitor” and a “stain on Israeli democracy”.

Zoabi, who has served as an MK with the Arab nationalist Balad faction within the Joint List since 2009, drew criticism in 2010 for her participation in a pro-Hamas flotilla which attempted to force its way into the Gaza Strip.

The 48-year-old MK also drew angry responses for her scathing criticism of the Jewish state and sympathy for the terrorists responsible for the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers in Gush Etzion.

“They are not terrorists,” Zoabi said in July 2014. “Even if I do not agree with them, they are people who do not see any way to change their reality, and they are compelled to use means like these".

Following an address in the Knesset by Zoabi, Regev hit the Joint List MK, calling her a “stain on Israeli democracy”.

“You need to get back on the Mavi Marmara and go to Gaza, you traitor,” said Regev, referring to one of the ships which attempted to force its way past Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip in 2010.

“The fact that you’re still here as a member of the Israeli Knesset is a stain on Israeli democracy.”

MK Oren Hazan (Likud) also slammed Zoabi, heckling her during her address, saying “You should be in jail, sitting behind bars. You terrorist piece of trash.”