MK Ahmed Tibi spoke to Palestinian Authority media on Wednesday from the Arab League Summit in Doha, Qatar. Tibi told the PA papers that Israel's new government poses a threat to Arabs inside and outside the state.
"The new Netanyahu extremist government does not represent a threat to the Palestinians living in Israel only [Israeli Arabs – ed.], but a threat to all Arabs who must understand and study more and more Israeli plots,” Tibi told the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News.
In interviews with other Arab media outlets, Tibi referred to the Palestinian Liberation Organization as “the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”
PA media expressed satisfaction with Qatar's decision to invite Tibi to the conference. Tibi's presence at the gathering guaranteed “the representation of Palestinians in Israel at the diplomatic level,” according to Ma'an.
Tibi attended the conference last year as well, as an official representative of “Palestine.”
While in Qatar, Tibi has met with officials from hostile countries, including Yemen. However, while Israelis are prohibited from traveling to hostile countries – a law that Tibi and several fellow Arab MKs have decried as racist – there is no rule preventing Israeli elected officials from meeting with representatives of hostile countries as part of a multinational event.
The newly elected MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) stated earlier in the week that Israeli security forces should investigate what Tibi is doing in Qatar. In a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, Ben-Ari warned that Tibi might be abusing his status as a Knesset Member to act against the state of Israel, as did former MK Azmi Bishara.