Avi Dichter
Avi DichterFlash 90

Former head of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) MK Avi Dichter (Likud) on Monday evening responded to MK Ayman Odeh, chairperson of the Arab Joint List party, who last month branded Dichter a "murderer."

"How did your lips not tremble when you accused me and other members of Knesset with murdering arch terrorists like (Ahmed) Yassin and (Abdel Aziz al-)Rantisi?," posed Dichter, noting the founders of the Hamas terror organization who Odeh said he had "murdered."

"After all, in the region where you live, in Haifa and the north, there were Hamas terror attacks in which Arabs (Christians and Muslims) were killed too alongside Jews and Druze."

Addressing Odeh, Dichter continued, "what exactly did your tongue say after those awful attacks? Nothing! I had the privilege of being the head of the Shabak (ISA) at the time and ordering the elimination of those who sent the murderers to the Matza restaurant and the Maxim restaurant - two restaurants owned by Arabs in which 37 Jews and Arabs were murdered and around 200 were wounded."

"What did you do then and what are you doing today in order to prevent terror? Nothing! Allah is waiting for you up above," said Dichter, first in Arabic and then in Hebrew. "And when you arrive at the gates of hell, Sheikh Yassin and Rantisi of Hamas and (Islamic Jihad co-founder Fathi) Shaqaqi will welcome you, and hurry to appoint you head of their house committee, without a vote."

Noting on how Arab MKs backed Hezbollah, he said, "you've passed their acceptance test. All of the Arab states declared that Hezbollah is a terror organization, but in your (party) these murderers who are taking part in murdering half-a-million Arabs in Syria are considered righteous."

"Radical, false and impassioned statements like these are appropriate there, up above Ayman, not here."

In response to Odeh's remarks on TV, in which he said there are Jewish MKs "who murdered Arabs with their own hands" and listed Dichter by name for taking out the Hamas founders, the Knesset Ethics Committee last Monday gave the Arab MK a slap on the wrist by merely reprimanding him.