After the Central Elections Committee led by Arab Supreme Court judge Salim Joubran banned distribution of the French Charlie Hebdo satire magazine in Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) displayed copies in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Members of Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu party, their mouths symbolically taped shut to protest the stifling of free speech, set up a stall in downtown Tel Aviv and displayed copies for public perusal of the magazine featuring a comic of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, an AFP correspondent said.
The issue was released a week after Islamist terrorists murdered 12 at the magazine's Paris headquarters over their cartoons of Mohammed. Islam bans any depiction of Mohammed, giving him divine status similar to Allah in being beyond representation.
"Radical Islamic terrorists murdered people simply because they published something. We will not allow this to happen in Israel," Liberman said at the gathering.
He emphasized "we will not surrender, and we will publish whatever we like, whenever we like."
The stall in Tel Aviv did not attempt to distribute or sell the magazines, after Jewish Home was warnedon Wednesday by Israel's electoral commission against "giving out gifts," saying that it was tantamount to bribery.
Members of Liberman's party passed out copies of the magazine on Sunday as well.
"We're here to say clearly that we will not give in to terror and terror threats," veteran journalist and Yisrael Beytenu candidate Sharon Gal stated to Arutz Sheva during a protest over the issue. "We will not give in to veiled threats by the Arab MKs from the Communist-jihadist-Islamist party, who said that if the paper is sold in Israel, they're not responsible for what would happen."
Ironically, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered an investigation this week after the PA daily on Sunday published a cartoon of Mohammed sowing love on earth, which Abbas called a "terrible mistake."