Noor Hussein, the parliamentary adviser of MK Osama Saadi from the Joint List, uploaded a post to Facebook expressing his condolences to the Islamic Jihad terrorist who was eliminated by the IDF in Jenin on Saturday.
"May Allah have mercy on him and make his dwelling place in heaven with the righteous and martyrs," wrote Hussein on Facebook on Saturday.
Hussein uploaded his post in response to the controversial post uploaded by deputy mayor of Nazareth, Samir Saadi, in which he too sent his condolences to the terrorist.
Both Saadi's and Hussein's posts were exposed by the Arab Desk of Im Tirtzu, but while Saadi didn't deny his remarks, Hussein claimed that his Facebook account was hacked and asserted that it wasn't him who uploaded the post.
In response to an inquiry from Channel 12, Hussein claimed that he already reported the hack to Facebook on Friday, a day before the post.
However, a screenshot he sent to Channel 12 of his complaint to Facebook was dated "Today" rather than "Friday," as it would have been had he submitted the request on Friday and not on Sunday after the story had already broke.
"I am of course against violence, death, and the spilling of blood," Hussein said in response to the backlash.
Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg dismissed Hussein's claim as a "pathetic excuse" and said that "such a person cannot be permitted to walk freely around the halls of the Knesset. The place for such views are in Gaza or Syria, but not in the State of Israel and certainly not in the Knesset."
"We call on the Knesset Guard to revoke his Knesset entry permit and on the Israel Police to arrest him and investigate him for incitement."
Responding to the controversy, MK Saadi said: "[Hussein] said his Facebook was hacked, and I believe him. Our stance is known – we support a political, popular, and public struggle, but are against harming the innocent."
Druze MK Fateen Mulla (Likud) said: "First it was the mayor of Umm el-Fahm who said that [his condolences to terrorists] was a mistake and he was resigning, then it was the deputy mayor of Nazareth who posted in support of shahids and then immediately erased it, and now here's another one who earns his salary from the Israeli taxpayer and supports lowly murderers who spilled Jewish blood. He should be fired and prosecuted, today."
MK Ofir Sofer (Religious Zionist Party( responded: "This is a terrorist supporter who receives a salary from the state. The Interior Minister needs to fire him immediately and the police should open up a criminal investigation."
The Srugim news outlet reported on Monday that Religious Zionist Party MKs Michal Woldiger and Orit Strook and Likud MK Keti Shitrit sent a letter to the Knesset Guard with the demand to prevent Hussein from entering the Knesset.