Knesset member Amir Peretz, left, with a Holocaust survivor in 2014. Photo: Maxine Dovere.

JNS.org – Knesset member Amir Peretz (Zionist Union), who was invited to participate in a conference hosted by the Moroccan Parliament on Sunday, was accosted by a lawmaker who accused him of being a war criminal.

Peretz was invited to attend the annual World Trade Organization’s Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, a regional forum seeking to promote its members’ common political, social, economic and cultural objectives. The Israeli delegation included several officials, including former Druze lawmaker Majalli Wahabi.

The incident took place at the end of the plenary session, when Islamist MP Ihsan Abed al-Halak yelled at Peretz, “You are a war criminal! You were the Israeli defense minister and you are not welcome here.”

Wahabi came to Peretz’s defense, saying, “You represent radical Islam. You destroyed Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Syria, and now you want to destroy Morocco. [Peretz’s] father and mother are Moroccan. He was born here. You have no right to attack him.”

The chairman of the meeting later apologized to Peretz, saying, “This minority does not represent the parliament or the Moroccan people.”

Peretz said he intended to “continue maintaining formal and informal ties with Arab countries, first and foremost Morocco, in which I have a special status.”