Ibrahim Sarsur. Photo: Knesset.gov.il

The Chairman of one of Israel’s largest Arab political parties, United Arab List, met Thursday with the man who orchestrated the 2002 suicide bombing of a passover seder at a hotel in Netanya that killed 35 people.

Ibrahim Sarsur met with Abbas Al-Sayyid, who is serving 35 life sentences, at the Hadarim Detention Center. After their meeting, Sarsur told Israeli media that he met with the terrorist to discuss Palestinian national unity and to observe prison conditions following a hunger strike earlier in the month by Al-Sayyid.

Al-Sayyid has gone on hunger strikes in the past to bring attention to various causes. In March he went on a hunger strike to protest his treatment at the hands of Israeli prison staff, and earlier this month as a show of solidarity for two prisoners originally released in last year’s Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, who were then rearrested.

Sarsur also met with Kareem Younis, who is serving a life sentence for his part in the 1981 murder of Israeli Corporal Avraham Bromberg.

Sarsur is no stranger to controversy. In 2011 he praised Hezbollah for defeating Israel in the 2006 Lebanon war and encouraged the terrorist organization to continue with its efforts.