Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman called on party activists Sunday to buy “thousands” of copies of the controversial “Mohammed edition” of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, which they will then distribute to Israelis on a mass basis.
Liberman called for the mass purchase after bookseller Steimatzky decided to cancel an in-store event celebrating the sale of the issues on Monday.
“We will not allow Israel to be turned in to an ISIS-style fundamentalist state,” said Liberman, before embarking on a state visit to Russia and China.
"Warnings by Arab MKs that the state would be 'responsible' for the results of the sale of the magazine by Steimatzky constitutes the crossing of a red line by the Israeli Arab leadership.”
Liberman was referring to a letter sent to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by Masud Ghnaim, the head of the United Arab List, who called the proposed sale by Steimatzky “dangerous and stupid.”
The feelings of Muslims would be badly hurt, he said, and “no one can predict what will happen” as a result.
Israeli book chain Steimatzky dropped plans for an in-store promotion of the Charlie Hebdo edition depicting the founder of Islam Mohammed in what Muslims consider an offensive manner.
Israel Radio said over the weekend that the chain had intended to hold a promotional event in a branch in the Tel Aviv area but later decided that orders for the issue - which has sparked sometimes deadly protests across the Muslim world - would now be taken only through its website.
In a statement, Steimatzky said that it believed in freedom of speech, and that it has been selling Charlie Hebdo for years and would continue to do so.