There are two women named Zoabi in Israel’s public arena. Haneen Zoabi is the first Arab woman to be elected to the Knesset, in 2009, and since then she has been a loud, really very loud voice in the service of the enemies of Israel. She has supported the Iranian nuclear program, Hezbollah, and the Arab terrorists who are knifing and shooting Israeli civilians. She has been removed from the Knesset plenum, even the podium, several times, and lost court cases over her nasty treatment of Arab police, among others.
Then there’s Sarah Zoabi, a relative of the nasty MK. Sarah Zoabi says she is “an Arab, a Muslim, an Israeli, and a Zionist.” She concedes: “I may get killed for saying this, but I truly believe that we as Arabs have no better place than Israel.” Her son, Mohammad Zoabi, also considers himself a Zionist. Mohammad has received media attention in Israel for a video where he wished well for the three Israeli teenagers who had been kidnapped by Hamas just before Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, in the summer of 2014. His advocacy and social media campaigning for Israel during the Gaza war forced him to leave Israel for several months after his life had been threatened.
This week, Sarah Zoabi was presented with an award from the Im Tirtzu movement in recognition of her work to integrate minorities into the IDF and Israeli society and for her advocacy on behalf of Israel. She was invited to give the first lecture of Im Tirtzu’s Program for Zionist Thought at Hebrew University, where she spoke about the integration of minorities within Israeli society and Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. At the conclusion of the lecture, she was presented with an award by Im Tirtzu’s Hebrew University branch coordinator.
Alon Schvartzer, CEO of Im Tirtzu, noted that “Sarah Zoabi is one of the most prominent pioneers of the effort to integrate Israeli minorities into society and is a Zionist in every sense of the word. Sarah and her son Mohammed prove that within the Muslim population in Israel there are those who wish to integrate into society and partake in national service. Sarah and her family are endangering themselves on a daily basis as a result of their Zionist advocacy and it is our job to help and support them. We wish Sarah and Mohammed many more years of important Zionist activity.”