A Tunisian lawmaker has torn up Israel’s flag during a heated speech at the parliament to promote a push for a law criminalizing relations with the Tel Aviv regime.
Footage, which circulated on social media networks on Tuesday, showed opposition lawmaker Ammar Amroussia ripping up the flag while slamming his fellow legislators for delaying debate on a bill that would make normalizing ties with Israel a crime.
The parliament has shelved the bill proposed by a left-wing opposition coalition, claiming it did not constitute “a priority.”
Ennahdha Party, part of the ruling coalition, has said such law would jeopardize Tunis’ ties with Western countries and international organizations, according to The Times of Israel.
Tunisia, along with most Arab countries, does not have ties with Israel.
Arab parliaments have seen recurrent scenes of fiery debates against Israel and the establishment of ties with the regime. Arab lawmakers have, on occasions in the past, reacted indignantly to former and incumbent Israeli officials at various events.
During an Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference held in Russia last October, Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim furiously told an Israeli delegation to immediately leave the venue. He was responding to an Israeli parliament representative’s comments about imprisoned Palestinian lawmakers.
Earlier that month, the former Israeli minister of military affairs, Amir Peretz, faced angry protests at the Moroccan Parliament in Rabat, with several lawmakers calling him a “war criminal” and demanding his expulsion.
He was attending a joint conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) and the World Trade Organization.
Israel, itself, however, claims it is enjoying “warming” relations with the Arab world, where several governments, most notably those of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have been increasingly gravitating towards Tel Aviv in defiance of public outrage.