Ramallah: It is anticipated that Palestinian Member of the Knesset Haneen Zoabi will lodge a complaint with the legislative body after being detained and handcuffed by Israeli police on Friday at an anti-war protest in Haifa.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Zoabi was taken into custody by officers who did not recognise her but was later released by a police commander.

Police accused Zoabi and another Knesset member, Jamal Zahilka, of assaulting their officers, a claim Zoabi denies. She says it was the police that in fact assaulted them.

Following the incident, Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel Minister of Internal Security, said he will appeal to Israel Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to lift immunity from Zoabi and Zahalka. “This is very dangerous. This is not the first time Zoabi and Zahalka attack and inflame situations,” he said. “I will lodge a request with the Israel Attorney-General to settle a score and put an end to all of this once and for all.”

Palestinians living in 1948 areas are not afforded the same political freedoms as Jewish citizens. “Zoabi does not deserve to be called a member of the Knesset. I will use all legal tools to strip her of her parliamentarian immunity to be interrogated later, indicted and punished,” said Aharonovich.

Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has vowed to bar Zoabi and other Palestinians from running in future elections. The Central Elections Committee banned the Balad party of which Zoabi and Zahalka are members, but the decision was later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court. Zoabi appeared on Al Jazeera praising Hamas and encouraging the Islamist movement to continue fighting Israel. “Hamas had succeeded in proving to the Israelis that they cannot continue to occupy Palestinian land,” she said. “Israel wants a short military operation. The Israel home front cannot tolerate a lengthy conflict,” he said.

Zoabi went on to say that “there are surprises, not only in the military sphere in terms of the number of rockets, their range and the fact that the Palestinian resistance is not surrendering, the surprise for the Israeli public is that the missiles reached Tel Aviv”.

Hamas spokesman Husam Badran praised Zoabi as a “Palestinian patriot worthy of the respect of our people”.