Hadash posted video calling for kidnapping soldiers
Hadash spokesman says the clip featuring Samer Issawi was posted as a news item and the party does not support kidnapping.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANSamer Isssawi, hunger-striker 370(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/ The Jerusalem Post)
The Hadash Party’s official Arabic Facebook page featured a video clip calling for kidnapping IDF soldiers over the weekend, Channel 1 reported Sunday night.The Facebook page’s editor posted a clip of recently freed Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi in an interview with the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa television station in which he explained his opinion on how to bring about the release of more prisoners.“The release of prisoners will only be achieved through kidnappings and prisoner swaps, and nothing else will work,” Issawi said.Hadash received many complaints that posting the clip on the party’s official Facebook page appeared to be an endorsement of what Issawi said. But a Hadash spokesman said the clip was posted as a news item and the party does not support kidnapping.The report said the clip was on the page for three days, but a Hadash spokesman said it was up for only one day.Issawi was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2002 for shooting attacks in Jerusalem.He gained international attention for his hunger strike, which ended in April.He was released in the swap for Gilad Schalit, then rearrested and sentenced to finish his term for violating his parole terms that barred him from leaving the Jerusalem area.Following Issawi’s call for kidnapping soldiers, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel should rearrest him.
