Coalition head Likud MK Ze\'ev Boim called upon Public Security Minister Uzi Landau to instruct the police to arrest Arab MK Azmi Bishara upon his return to Israel from Syria. Bishara appeared today at a memorial ceremony in Damascus for the late Hafez Assad - together with Hizbullah terrorist leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. In his speech today, Nasrallah said that Hizbullah will continue its war against Israel, and \"will liberate the [Har Dov] area with blood.\" At the same forum, MK Bishara said that the Sharon government is going in the direction of war, is threatening the entire regional situation, and \"at a time like this, the Arab nation must unite.\"
Labor MK Ophir Paz said that Bishara is a \"serial instigator against Israeli democracy who incites the Israeli-Arabs.\" MK Effie Oshaya, head of the Labor party faction in the Knesset, sharply criticized Bishara, saying, \"His act is a humiliation of the State of Israel, one that will deepen the fissure between Jews and Arabs… It is especially grave considering the fact that Hizbullah is holding three Israeli soldiers captive… This is like spitting in the faces of the families of these soldiers.\"
Shinui party leader MK Tommy Lapid calls upon the government to take strong action against Arab MK Muhammad Barakeh. Barakeh called upon his fellow Arabs to rebuild the villages they left in 1948 - many of which are now occupied by Israeli kibbutzim and towns. Lapid said that such a call could be the beginning of a civil war, and that \"what appears now to be the voice of a lone extremist could, in the end, cause a worse problem than that which we have now in the Judea and Samaria.\" Shinui has extreme leftist positions on matters of religion, but prides itself on its right-of-center views on Israeli-Arab issues.
As we go to press, it has been learned that Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein has decided to close two criminal files against MK Barakeh, both involving calls of incitement to violence against Israel. Rubenstein said the statements in question were \"ambiguous.\"