Israeli parliament reprimands MP Tibi for speech that PMW exposed

The Knesset Ethics Committee reprimanded MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) on Monday for giving a speech in which he praised Palestinian “martyrs.”

Meanwhile, MK Danny Danon (Likud) said the committee’s punishment was not strong enough, and that Tibi should be put in prison.

In a video released by NGO Palestinian Media Watch in January and shot at a Palestinian Authority event honoring Palestinian martyrs, Tibi is shown saying that "there is no greater source of praise" than martyrdom.

While the word shaheed, martyr in Arabic, means to die in the name of God, in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict it has come to be associated with suicide bombers and terrorists who are killed while attacking Israel.