Joint List Knesset members blasted far-right Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday, July 25, after Netanyahu released a video in which he apologized for comments he made on March 17, 2015 – election day for the current, 20^th, Knesset more than a year and four months ago ­– in which he warned Jewish Israeli voters that Arabs were “flocking to the polls in droves,”  a reference to the anticipated success of the Joint List those elections.

The Facebook post published from Netanyahu’s account on March 17, 2015: “The government of the Right is in danger. Arabs voters are flocking to the polls in droves. Leftist NGOs are transporting them in buses.¶ We have no V-15 [reference to an American-modeled NGO that campaigned against Netanyahu], we have “Order No. 8” [reference to the emergency mobilization issued to Israeli reservists in times of military tension or actual warfare], we only have you. Go out to the polls, bring your friends and family, vote for the Likud to close the gap between us and the Labor Party.¶ With your help and the help of God, we will form a nationalist government that will defend the State of Israel.” (Screen shot from Facebook)

Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) reacted to Netanyahu’s video and saying, “I watched the video tonight and I asked myself whether this is the same person who so desperately tried to block the economic plan for Arabs; who tried to add more conditions to the program so that it would not be implemented? Is this the same Prime Minister who incited against us in the elections and since then has only worsened his incitements?” “When I saw you chose to turn to us in English,” he continued, responding directly to Netanyahu, “I understood exactly for where this message is intended and for what purpose. So I’m answering the Prime Minister on behalf of the Arab public and saying that we’re not buying his show of hypocrisy.”

MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta’al – Joint List) also blasted the Netanyahu’s video, saying, “Mr. Netanyahu’s passionate appeal to the residents of Rahat and Taybeh [Arab cities in Israel] in English causes me to smile and raises questions about the background of this spin. If you saw some unsteadiness in the video it’s because the cameraman couldn’t stop laughing. Netanyahu didn’t even apologize for his past racist remarks, and only ‘apologizes if his words were misunderstood.’ Again the Arabs (and Jews) did not understand his thoughts.” Tibi continued: “I wonder whether the motive [for Netanyahu’s ‘apology’] is criticism by the OECD or another international body. He and his government are personally responsible for the huge disparities between Arab and Jewish communities and he is the one who boasting about the destruction of homes rather than real integration. This spin is not likely to hold water with anyone either.”