Channel 14 aired footage Tuesday evening of Knesset member Sami Abu Shahadeh speaking to an Arabic media outlet just two days after the October 7 massacre. In the interview, Abu Shahadeh expressed solidarity with the terror organization while Israeli forces were still fighting the last terrorists who had invaded the Gaza border communities.
“This is an act of extermination, not a war,” Abu Shahadeh said of the IDF’s operations in Gaza. “The State of Israel has one of the largest armies in the world, and over the course of decades it has developed one of the most horrific machines of destruction in the world,” he added.
The Balad chairman then said he was proud of Gaza’s resistance against Israel, adding that Israel and Hamas are not equal: “There are not two equal sides here, and people need to be told the truth.”
In his response to the Central Elections Committee, Abu Shahadeh claimed that on October 8 he still didn’t know the full scale of the massacre. But now it’s been revealed that he made similar statements two days after the massacre, when the scope of the atrocities was already clear to everyone.
The interview has resurfaced as the committee considers a petition to disqualify Abu Shahadeh’s candidacy for the upcoming Knesset elections.