Firebrand Arab Israeli Politician Attacked by Far-Right Activists

Firebrand Arab Israeli lawmaker Hanin Zuabi was attacked by activists linked to the extreme rightwing Yahad party during a debate Tuesday near Tel Aviv, police and a political rival said.

The attack occurred during a cross-party debate on women's issues at a college in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, with a man in his 20s pouring a bottle of juice over Zuabi's head, police said.

"One of those present in the hall threw juice at Hanin Zuabi. The youth, a 28-year-old resident of Ramat Gan was arrested by police and Hanin Zuabi left the place," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement, which noted a Palestinian flag had been raised in the hall.

A member of parliament with the secular Balad party, Zuabi holds the seventh slot on the newly-formed Joint Arab List, a united slate which includes representatives from across the political spectrum, from Communists to Islamists.

She is known as an outspoken critic of Israel's domestic policies as well as its actions in the Palestinian territories which has earned her widespread hatred on the Israeli street.

Baruch Marzel, an extreme rightwing lawmaker who is running for office in next month's elections with Yahad, who had earlier encouraged his followers to disrupt the meeting, hailed the incident as a success.

"We promised -- and we did it!" he wrote on Facebook in Hebrew.

"I said this morning, I would do everything to not let her speak -- and it happened," he said, praising action by students and activists from Jewish Power, a fringe group running on the Yahad list.

"Vote Yahad in the polls -- because we must wipe the smile off her face," he said. 

Earlier, he had posted the address of the conference on his page, writing: "Hanin Zuabi, I'm on my way to you."

Once at leader of the racist and now outlawed Kach party, Marzel has been convicted of incitement to violence against Arab Israelis on several occasions, receiving a suspended prison sentence and community service orders.

Last month, the Supreme Court overruled a ban on both lawmakers from running in the upcoming election on March 17.

The ruling came after the Central Elections Committee had barred Zuabi as "hostile to the Jewish state" while Marzel was excluded over alleged racism.