The current terror wave that is sweeping across the country has been giving Knesset member Zouheir Bahloul of the Zionist Camp sleepless nights. His identity as an Israeli Arab, a Muslim and a Knesset member of the Zionist party is laden with inner conflicts and struggles.

On Oct. 19, Bahloul woke up to the terrible news that an Israeli citizen, a 21-year-old Bedouin from the Hura village, was the perpetrator of the attack the previous evening at Beersheba’s central bus station. He told Al-Monitor, “When I learned that the terrorist was from Hura, I shuddered. I couldn’t function, I didn’t go to Jerusalem. I couldn’t believe it. On the other hand, I know that the present climate is conducive to bad seeds flowering. Israeli Arabs have red lines in their justified struggle. People shouldn’t make generalizations.”

Bahloul was born in Acre. Before engaging in politics, he was a respected and popular sports broadcaster and commentator who also presented political current events programs in Israel’s established media. During the last election campaign — when the Arab parties were forced to unite, due to the rise in the electoral threshold — he got involved in politics through a mainstream party. Bahloul and Arab Knesset member Issawi Freij of the Meretz Party found themselves in the minority: They were Arab Knesset members operating out of Zionist parties, and not in the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties. Now at the height of the storm, Bahloul is convinced that he made the right decision and that the majority of the Arab public prefers the path that he decided to take.

The text of the interview follows.