A 28-year-old man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion that he spilled juice on MK Hanin Zoabi (United Arab List). The suspect is an activist in the Otzma Yehudit list, which says Zoabi had been making provocations. He can be seen in the embedded video saying "Shame on you, terrorist" before spilling the juice on Zoabis head.
The activist was present at a conference on women and politics at the Academic Center for Law and Business in Ramat Gan.
The event's organizers accused both Zoabi and Otzma Yehudit's Baruch Marzel of responsibility for the clash. The spokesman for the Academic Center for Law and Business, Amihai Zevuluni, was quoted by Army Radio as saying: “This is an intentional and ugly provocation by Baruch Marzel's activists and Hanin Zoabi's supporters, who tried to sabotage the conference on purpose." The host of the panel also said that Zoabi, "who apparently likes this kind of provocation," shares responsibility for the incident.
Otzma Yehudit said that “it is regrettable that the police turned the event into a drama. Zoabi had been carrying out provocations and we will demand that [the activist] be released after questioning.”
The party is running on a technical bloc joint list for the 20th Knesset with Eli Yishai's Ha'am Itanu / Yachad. Polls show the list is expected to get four or five mandates.
In a clip recently published by Otzma Yehudit, Marzel, number four on the joint list, is seen coming out of the Knesset plenum holding a garbage bag, which supposedly holds Arab MKs Zoabi Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List).
Immediately after, a garbage truck en route to Syria arrives and collects Zoabi and Tibi.
"In two and a half weeks when we arrive at the Knesset, we will take care of actually sending terrorists Zoabi and Tibi to Syria,” says Marzel. “Now they're smiling, but we will erase those smiles."