National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reiterated his opposition on Wednesday to Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi meeting with Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in jail.
Ben-Gvir made the remarks at Israel's Supreme Court, where he attended a hearing on a petition filed by Tibi, which requests members of the Knesset to be allowed to meet with security prisoners.
"It is sad that on the day we bury soldiers, we have to deal with a petition from a member of the Knesset in the State of Israel, who receives money from our salaries, and he wants to meet and talk with his accomplice - Marwan Barghouti, a murderer, who has the blood of Jews on his hands," Ben-Gvir stated.
Ben-Gvir stands behind the decision
He further affirmed, "I'm the political echelon. I decided that they couldn't meet, and I stand behind this decision."
The Adalah organization via which Tibi filed the petition stated the hearing was taking place after there had been no response to Tibi's inquiries regarding his requests to meet with terrorists Walid Daqqah (who died in prison in April) and Barghouti and due to Ben-Gvir's cancellation of the procedure that dealt with such requests which dated from the previous Knesset.
Adalah also argued that members of Ben-Gvir's party had been able to visit Jewish prisoners convicted for acts of terror whose conditions in Israeli jail have been bettered by the Israel Prison Service chief appointed by Ben-Gvir.
Barghouti, former leader of the Tanzim, a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement, was sentenced in 2004 by an Israeli court to five cumulative life sentences and 40 years in prison for terrorist acts in which five Israelis were murdered and many wounded.