An Israeli right-wing lawmaker has come under fire after a video of him verbally abusing relatives of Palestinian prisoners aboard a bus for a family visit in an Israeli jail.
The legislator, Oren Hazan, boarded the bus at the Gaza border with video crews in tow. He said on Twitter he told the relatives that the prisoners were "terrorists who belong in the ground". In a video clip on social media, he shouted at one prisoner's mother that her son was an "insect" and a "dog".
"An insect?," she yelled back. "My son is the best of men. A dog is whoever calls him a dog."
The families on the bus were on their way to Nafha prison in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in a convoy escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a statement, the ICRC said it "takes very seriously what happened today".
The Red Cross said Israel has a duty to guarantee the safety and dignity of Palestinian families visiting prisoners.
"I will make sure that you are not allowed to visit here any more. We will do everything so that you won't enter here. You are not wanted here. You educated your son to murder and we will show your son to the ground," Hazan threatened a Palestinian mothers.
After the mother asked him to speak politely, he responded: "She educated her son to murder and hate. For the likes of her, I have no manners."
Hazan has a record of staging publicity stunts, including crashing a welcoming ceremony for visiting U.S. President Donald Trump. He once agreed to stage a fistfight at the border with a member of Jordan's parliament, only to cancel it on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel's Prisons Service declined comment on the incident.
Maximum security Nafha prison, in the southern Israeli desert, is used mainly to hold Palestinians convicted of anti-Israeli security offences. The convoy completed its journey to the facility.
Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoner Club that advocates on behalf of Palestinians held by Israel, branded Hazan a "fanatic" but said Israel's government "bears responsibility for this brutal action".
