On Feb. 4, the media reported a meeting in East Jerusalem between Knesset members from the Balad Party (part of the Joint List) and the families of perpetrators killed while attacking Israelis. The reports carried the impression that Knesset members Haneen Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas wanted to convey their condolences to the families for the deaths of their sons. Yedioth Ahronoth's headline read, “Embracing Terrorists.” Many other news outlets used the term “condolence visit.”
According to Maan, the Palestinian news agency, the meeting was attended by the father of Baha Aliyan, who murdered three Israelis in an attack on a bus in the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem on Oct. 3. The report went on to say that the Knesset members stood in a moment of silence in memory of the attackers. The legislators told a different story, stating that the objective of the meeting was to address the bureaucratic procedures of returning the bodies to their families. Their explanation did not, however, stop the event from becoming a huge public storm in Israel.