Knesset Security Chief Yosef Grif decided on Wednesday to assign a security detail to Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), after she received death threats for justifying the kidnapping of three Israeli teens last Thursday.
Grif informed Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud), the police and other sources of the decision.
Zoabi raised a storm on Tuesday by saying of the Hamas terrorist kidnappers in a radio interview: "they are not terrorists, I do not agree with you! They have seen no other way to change their reality and they have to resort to these measures until Israel sobers up a bit and feels the suffering of others."
The Arab MK reiterated her statements in an interview Wednesday morning, saying she "cannot see (the kidnappers) as terrorists," and refusing to say that she would see the act as terrorism even if the three boys turned out to have been murdered.
"There will be more kidnapping if you don't remove the context of occupation," Zoabi added. "The main terror is that perpetrated by Israeli society. ...The state of Israel has abducted thousands of Palestinians whom it holds in its jails."
The decision to allocate state funds to protect Zoabi, after she defended the terrorist abduction of Israeli children, comes as concern has been raised that the state is not doing enough to protect Zoabi's relative Mohammed Zoabi, a 17-year-old Zionist Muslim from Nazareth.
Zoabi insulted her young Zionist relative on air while justifying the kidnapping, in response to a video he posted on Facebook on Saturday supporting the kidnapped Israeli youths. Three of his relatives were arrested for planning to abduct him over the video.
Mohammed's mother spoke on Tel Aviv's 102FM radio on Wednesday, saying "I am the only one who is worried, I am the only one supporting him, and you should know that the state has also let down Mohammed.”
The uproar over Zoabi's comments on the kidnapping have led several MKs to seek taking legal action against her.