Aida Touma Sliman
Aida Touma SlimanYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday blasted MK Aida Touma Sliman from the Joint List, after she blamed the IDF for allegedly spraying "unidentified material" on Palestinian Arabs at the Qalqilya checkpoint.

“You're a liar, anti-Semitic and contemptible. These are not IDF forces. It is the Palestinian Authority that decided to disinfect the checkpoint and is carrying it out. It is unbelievable that Bogie [Yaalon], Evet [Liberman], [Benny] Gantz, Gabi [Ashkenazi] and [Yair] Lapid are ready to form a government with the help of your vote,” Bennett said.

Earlier, Touma Sliman posted a video to her Twitter account which she claims showed IDF soldiers spraying Palestinian Arabs at Qalqilya checkpoint in an attempt to eradicate the coronavirus.

"Another horror of the occupation under the cover of the coronavirus - the IDF sprays Palestinians at the Qalqilya checkpoint with unknown material. It is widely known that the method of spraying is ineffective in the fight against the virus. The horrors perpetrated under the cover of the crisis should not be ignored," she wrote.

After realizing her mistake, Touma Sliman wrote on Twitter, "The video I uploaded a few minutes ago was from the Palestinian side of the Eyal Checkpoint. I was misled. All of this does not detract from the fact that it is not a proper sight, and that spraying is not helpful when it comes to the disease. But this time the responsibility is not on the occupation."

Touma Sliman, like some of the other Arab MKs, has made controversial statements.

Last summer, she sent official letters of solidarity to Democratic US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in the wake of President Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks on them.

In 2018, she asserted during an interview that Israel was to blame for an incident in which an Iranian drone infiltrated Israeli territory from Syria.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)