Israelis are well aware of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's view of the country’s Arab citizens, particularly their elected Knesset representatives. Prior to the 2015 elections, Liberman, chairman of Yisrael Beitenu, pushed through a bill raising the electoral threshold in an effort to keep the Arab parties out of the Knesset. In doing so, he prompted the small Arab parties to unite in order to avoid exclusion. As a result, the Joint List was able to win 13 Knesset seats in the 2015 elections, becoming the third largest faction in the 120-seat legislature.

In recent years, Liberman has consistently called for the transfer of Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population, to a future Palestinian state to be established by an agreement between the sides. This population swap idea even became his party’s slogan in the last election campaign: “Ariel for Israel, Umm al-Fahm for Palestine,” a reference to the Israeli West Bank settlement town of Ariel and the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.

Liberman makes no bones about his hostility toward the Arab Knesset members. On April 18, for example, a day after Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails went on a hunger strike, the defense minister couldn’t resist saying he hoped that Arab Knesset members and Sheikh Raed Salah (leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement) join the hunger strike “without breaking down and eating chicken at night.”

When he served as minister of transportation under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, after the Arab town of Sakhnin's football club won the national cup, Liberman claimed there was no place for an Arab group in the Israeli premiere league. Sharon was quick to rebuke him, saying, “We view the Arabs of Israel as part of the State of Israel. That is the position of the Israeli government.” Then-Justice Minister Yosef Lapid (father of Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid) also rejected Liberman’s comments in disgust, calling the Soviet-born politician an “anti-Communist who espouses Stalin’s methods.”