"I hope the Palestinians launch a massive popular resistance, one that is political and strategic, like the First Intifada," Knesset member Hanin Zoabi (Balad) said Wednesday.

In an interview with Mynet, the Balad MK stated that in her opinion, Judge Richard Goldstone was bullied into his latest actions, the rocket which hit an Israeli school bus in the south was actually Israel's fault and Israeli Arabs should take notes from Egyptian protestors.

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Comparing the First Intifada with the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Zoabi said that "the second Intifada was much more violent. The first one was better. Tahrir Square should be the Arab youths' new model. I would like to see them mount a popular resistance against the occupation, because occupiers cannot expect to lead normal lives."

As for the incident which saw a rocket hit an Israeli school bus, leaving one teenager critically injured, Zoabi said that "Palestinians were killed before that incident and Palestinians were killed after it. You don't count the dead Palestinians, only the dead Israelis. It is immoral for only the occupier to be seen as the side entitled to lead a normal life."

But can targeting a school bus be perceived as part of the legitimate Palestinian resistance? "I support moral resistance. I don’t condone murder, but what I'm saying is that the same people, who don’t want to see babies come under fire, should also think about the babies in Gaza.

"If you don’t want them to fire at you, then the Israeli public should take to the street and protest against the Gaza siege. Until that happens, you shouldn’t be surprised by such thing things.

"(The Palestinians) will fight. True, it's not moral and it's foolish and ineffective, but that is how people react when you push them into a corner and ruin their lives. Besides, it's not about the school bus."

'Gaza siege no longer news worthy'

According to the Balad MK, the real point is that "no one is talking about the Gaza siege anymore. It's not newsworthy any more. It's become the norm. You Israelis only bolster the occupation, and grade those who want to fight it. Any attack on civilians is a crime. The Palestinians are also averse to the killing of children and babies, but the occupation and the siege are a hothouse for such crimes.

"After the family in Itamar was slaughtered, I issued a press release denouncing the act. Not one media outlet published it. In it, I also said that the occupation was the biggest crime."

Turning her attention to the recent controversy surrounding the Goldstone Report , whose author, Richard Goldstone, said he now questioned the findings that led his committee to determine that Israel may be guilty of perpetrating war crimes during Operation Cast Lead , Zoabi said that in her opinion, the South African judge cannot be taken seriously.

"Goldstone is not a serious man and his foolish statement was uninformed. He said he had information when in fact he had none. He said those things as an isolated, threatened person."

Zoabi added she believes Goldstone feels threatened by his own Jewish South African community. "They won't even let him into the synagogue. He is not a stupid man, but he failed to reveal any details of his new discoveries."

She further dismissed Goldstone's determination that Israel had taken significant steps to probe its modus during the campaign in the Strip, saying "We know what measures Israel took. It investigated 500 cases in Gaza, only three of which resulted in convictions. That has no bearing on the overall picture. What he said was insignificant and meaningless."