The poster advertising MK Ahmed Tibi’s lecture in California on Sunday. Photo: Nrg/Screenshot.

Ahead of addressing a Palestinian conference in California on Sunday afternoon, an Arab member of Knesset “erased” Israel from the map featured in the ad for the event, the Hebrew news site nrg reported.

Dr. Ahmed Tibi, leader of the Arab Movement for Change party (which became part of the Joint Arab List bloc in the last parliamentary elections) is not only described in the ad as a “Palestinian in the Knesset,” but appears next to a map of “Palestine” that covers the entire state of Israel.

Nrg questioned whether this indicates Tibi’s verbal support for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (usually referring to a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders) actually means the elimination of the Jewish state.

Likud MK Anat Berko, an expert on Palestinian terrorism, attacked Tibi for the map in the poster advertising the lecture. She accused Tibi of “again and again fooling the Israeli public through the ‘nice guy’ image he adopted. Unfortunately, a lot of people here buy his bluff. He sells the Palestinian public here and across the world a completely different message – a logo of ‘the whole of Palestine’ flying on an official invitation in the US along his smiling face is just one symbolic example of this.”

Tibi’s office told nrg, “We don’t determine for the groups inviting him to speak what their logo will be and how they design the colors of their homeland — and there is a difference between homeland and state. But it would be nice if you would please find out from Israel’s ministers, including the prime minister, where the border of the Palestinian state is going to be, if at all. MK Tibi says it will be along he ’67 borders; what do Netanyahu and his ministers say? We’ll take care of the paint and brushes; the government ministers only need to draw the border.”

A gynecologist trained at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tibi – who describes himself  as Arab-Palestinian in nationality and Israeli in citizenship – was an adviser to PLO chief Yasser Arafat from 1993 (after the signing of the Oslo Accords) until 1999. Since then, he has been a member of the Knesset and currently serves as one of its deputy speakers.

His official position is in support for a two-state solution, but he opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

The event at which Tibi spoke on Sunday was co-sponsored by the Palestinian American Coalition (PAC) and held at the Palestinian American Community Center in Hayward, California. Admission was $25 per ticket.