Arab members of the Israeli parliament were infuriated Monday morning by the appearance of Reform Party of Syria leader Farid Ghadry at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
"Ghadry decided to act against his people and his country, and chose to be a mercenary for Americans," Hahash Chairman Muhammad Barakeh argued, according to Haaretz. "He came to act as a wretched servant for the belligerent agenda and the extreme right wing. Scum is bad, but American scum of this kind is much worse," Barakeh added.
On his part, MP Ahmed Tibi stopped Ghadry in the Kneseet corridor and told him in Arabic: "Aren't you ashamed? You should be ashamed, coming here as a cheap pawn of [Likud Chairman Binyamin] Netanyahu. Asking the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee not to retreat from the Golan, your homeland, when even more than half of Israelis support withdrawal, it's despicable."
Ghadry stated on Sunday that he still believed that the Golan Heights belonged to Syria. He told an audience at the Harry Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University that Israel should refrain from making peace with Syria's current dictatorship until its leadership becomes a democracy.
"Syria will become democratic, have patience... Peace with a non-democratic Syria... is perilous and short-sighted."
