Baruch Marzel
Baruch MarzelTomer Neuberg/Flash 90

Activist Baruch Marzel of Otzma Yehudit, who is on the fourth spot in Eli Yishai's Yachad - Ha'am Itanu joint list, responded on Thursday night to the petition calling to bar him from the Knesset for "racism."

After an initial petition by an Arab MK with the radical leftist Meretz party to block Marzel and Avigdor Liberman earlier this week, Marzel responded by petitioning Wednesday to outlaw the united Arab list for statements made by its members expressing open support for terrorist organizations seeking Israel's demise.

On Thursday it was revealed that the Labor-Hatnua joint list of Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni will support the barring of radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, but placed a condition that a petition be submitted against Marzel as well. On Thursday just such a petition was submitted, signed by members of Labor as well as the Coalition Against Racism.

"It doesn't surprise me to hear that the friends of (radical Arab MKs Jamal) Zahalka and Ahmed Tibi, members of the party that defines itself as the 'Zionist camp,' seek to bar me from standing in elections - and at the same time are trying to form a coalition with the haters of Israel," retorted Marzel.

"It was again proven that those who pity the cruel in the end are cruel to the righteous," Marzel continued in a play on a famous dictum of the Jewish sages.

Remarking on Labor's demand that Marzel be barred together with Zoabi, he added "the comparison between me and Zoabi isn't just inappropriate, rather it teaches about the warped values of the leftists - Zoabi seeks to erase the Jewish state, and all I'm doing is for the people of Israel and with love of Israel."

Zoabi has spoken openly in support of Hamas, the terrorist regime with the genocide of Jews written into its very charter, and likewise took part in the infamous 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla in which "humanitarian" activists tried to breach Israel's legal sea blockade and then used lethal weapons to assault IDF soldiers.

The petition against Marzel apparently rests on vague accusations of "racism"; Marzel's platform, as a follower and former Knesset aide of former MK Rabbi Meir Kahane hy''d, recommends transferring hostile Arab residents who oppose the existence of the Jewish state out of Israel. It was predicted that attempts would be made to bar Marzel, as such attempts have been made in the past and failed.