JERUSALEM: Faced with world outrage over its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound activist flotilla, Israel is circling the wagons and lashing out at critics, accusing them of "incitement" against the Jewish state.
But opponents claim it is Israel which is doing the inciting.
An Arab-Israeli MP who had been on the aid-laden Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara when Israeli commandos killed nine activists on May 31 has received death threats after fellow legislators accused her of being a traitor.
Rightwing commentator Hagai Segal, meanwhile called for the Al-Jazeera news network to be kicked out of Israel, and possibly designated as a "terrorist organization," claiming its coverage of the flotilla was marked by "lies, incitement and hatred for Israel."
Since the raid, which sparked worldwide outrage, Israel has launched a huge public relations campaign to depict the soldiers who boarded the ferry as victims of premeditated violence.
"The current internal discourse is that it is us against them, that the entire world is against us," says Yizhar Beer of the Keshev Centre for the Protection of Democracy in Israel.
"Israelis feel a strong threat from outside, and see themselves as the victims," says Beer.
"It takes on mythological proportions: a small people surrounded by enemies, victims with no friends."
Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called world criticism of the commando operation an "attack of international hypocrisy."
Several MPs accused Arab-Israeli parliamentarian Haneen Zuabi of incitement — in some cases even treason — for taking part in the ill-fated six-ship flotilla that aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Hamas-run Gaza.
Her attempt last week to discuss the mission degenerated in a shouting and shoving match, with fellow MPs insulting her and yelling "Go to Gaza, traitor."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai reportedly asked the attorney general to clarify whether it would be legal to revoke Zuabi’s citizenship.
Zuabi has faced death threats, notably on a Facebook site — that has now been taken down — called "Kill Haneen Zuabi."
"They criticise me for my political activities and present me as a traitor and a terrorist, even within the Knesset," she told AFP.
Another Arab-Israeli MP, Taleb a-Sanaa said that police had to rescue him from an angry crowd of demonstrators after he arrived at Ashdod as another activist aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, was being towed into port after being intercepted at sea on Saturday.
"Arab Israelis are perceived as an easy, accessible target — scapegoats paying the price for the frustration in Israel," said Amnon Beeri-Sulitzeanu of the Abraham Fund, which promotes Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel.
Anger among the Arab minority, which makes up about 17 percent of Israel’s 7.6 million population, is further fuelled by a series of bills targeting what rightwing MPs say is incitement by Arab legislators.
One would require MPs to swear allegiance to Israel as "a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and to its values and symbols," and another would allow the expulsion from parliament of legislators who "incite against Israel."
Incitement, real or imagined, is very much part of the volatile region’s political landscape, and has become a favorite accusation on both sides of the political divide.
On Monday the parliament’s House Committee called for some of Zuabi’s privileges as an MP to be lifted, prompting a strongly-worded response from her leftwing Arab party.
"This decision adds fuel to the flames of incitement against Haneen," the Balad party said in a statement.
Earlier, Zuabi said she was "astonished by the incitement" she heard during a parliamentary debate on the fateful last hours of the Mavi Marmara’s voyage, when violence broke out as commandos rappelled down from helicopters and nine Turkish activists were killed.
"There is a lot of incitement in the atmosphere," Beer said in reference to the increasingly common use of the expression to delegitimise critics or political opponents.
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