Kan 11 News report, in Hebrew.

MK Yousef Jabareen (Hadash) publicly called for a boycott of Israel in remarks he gave at the anti-Israel Palestine Expo event taking place in London, Kan 11 News reported Sunday.

“Everybody is witnessing the return marches in Gaza, and I want to be frank here and say that there needs to a more mass mobilization of our people on the ground, in Gaza but also in the West Bank,” he said, while accusing Israel of carrying out a policy which combines apartheid and occupation.

“The international community has all the tools to deal with war crimes,” Jabareen said. “To boycott settlers, to boycott settlement products, to boycott international companies – and there are a lot of these – that deal with expanding the settlements.”

Palestine Expo is led by the Friends of Al-Aqsa organization which supports a boycott of Israel. Among the organizations that finance the event are two that have been declared by Israel “an unlawful association” - The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) and Interpal, the working name for the British charity Palestinian Relief and Development Fund.

Jabareen said in his remarks that the Public Security Ministry had asked the Legal Advisor of the Knesset not approve his participation at the conference, but “I am glad and proud to be here.”

Indeed, according to Kan 11 News, Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan tried to prevent Jabareen’s participation at the conference on the grounds that it was funded by the Middle East Monitor website, which the Strategic Affairs Ministry’s website defines as “a pro-Palestinian website which is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas movements and acts to promote their goals. Its leaders are directly linked to terrorist financing bodies.”

Responding to the report, MK Jabareen told Kan 11 News, “Indeed, Middle East Monitor is the body that invited me and funded my participation. The position of Minister Erdan, who demanded that my participation in the event be prevented, is a serious violation of my freedom of expression and freedom of movement. I spoke at the conference on the dangers of the Nationality Law as an apartheid legislation and against the ‘Deal of the Century’, which denies the rights of the Palestinian people, in order to try to influence international public opinion.”

Arab MKs are notorious for their actions against the State of Israel, despite the fact that they are elected members of its parliament.

Jabareen has been one of the leaders of the efforts to have the UN publicly condemn Israel over the Nationality Law, which states that Israel is the Jewish people's nation state and establishes as law Israel's flag, symbols, the Hebrew language, and various other items mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

The law does not affect the rights of minority citizens in Israel, but has been criticized by Arab MKs and by some Arab countries over claims that it is discriminatory.

Last year, the Knesset's Ethics Committee turned down a request to allow Jabareen to travel abroad on a speaking tour funded by an anti-Israel organization which boycotts Israel and which appears on the Ministry of Strategic Affairs' list of BDS-associated organizations.