MK Ibtisam Mara'ana: 'It's my security and it's my foreign affairs'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309914

MK Ibtisam Mara'ana (Labor) has joined the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as an alternate member, sparking controversy.

"I don't understand the uproar," Mara'ana told News 12. "If a man had joined the Committee for Women's Issues no one would raise an eyebrow, or if a Jew had joined the Special Committee on Arab Society Affairs, no one would raise an eyebrow. But when an Arab joins the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, people raise eyebrows."

"I joined the Committee because it's my security, too, and it's my foreign affairs, too. My job on the Committee is first of all to be on guard and to say that violence and war no longer works. We are paying a price in blood, bereavement, and destruction. I am a person who believes that all avenues of negotiations must be pursued.

 

 When asked if she would want the IDF to win if it needed to engage in another Gaza war, Mara'ana refused to clearly condemn Hamas' attacks on Israeli civilians.

"I want there to be peace here," she claimed. "I say enough with the violence, the crime, and the wars. It's time to examine a different path. My stance is very clear: The paths of attack and violence, and wars, and people on both sides who lose their homes - this doesn't work."