Ibtisam Mara'ana, who is running for the Knesset on behalf of the Labor Party, apologized on Saturday night for posts on social media in which she declared she had ignored the two-minute siren on Memorial Day.
Mara'ana, who is in the number 7 spot on the Labor slate, has faced criticism over this post as well as over posts saying that Israel is an ugly country and that the Gaza Strip is a "ghetto under brutal occupation."
"I stand for the siren when I'm outside. I apologize that [my post] hurt a mother, father, brother or sister who lost their daughter or son - it doesn't matter what the reasons are," she told Channel 12 News.
"If I were not an Arab, would I have been facing what I am facing? Would they have called me a terrorist?” she added.
When asked if she can represent a Zionist party, she replied in the affirmative and without hesitation, "Certainly. I came as Ibtisam and I believe in the existence of the state in which I live."