A right-wing Israeli lawmaker hinted that Arab colleagues who hold contacts with enemy groups should be executed. In a Knesset speech Thursday, Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, invoked the capital punishment handed down to Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. “I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in this house,” he said, a reference to Israeli Arab lawmakers who have met with members of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority or leaders of Hezbollah. The Israeli Arab factions reacted with outrage. One lawmaker called Lieberman a “neo-Nazi,” while another lodged a complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came to the Arab lawmakers’ defense.
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