Israel: Knesset member calls for murder of people in mixed marriages

An Israeli Knesset member has called for the killing of couples involved in mixed marriages during a speech in parliament.

Yitzhak Pindrus is a member of the United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox party that believes in a homogenous Jewish state and society.

He called for the murder of "people who contribute to miscegenation", invoking a Biblical story about the murder of a Jewish man and non-Jewish woman while they were making love by lancing a spear through their engaged sexual organs.

He made his comments on Monday while addressing - and looking at - Mansour Abbas, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who is a deputy minister in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition and the head of the Islamist Raam party.

David Sheen, an Israeli journalist, who wrote about Pindrus's remarks on Twitter and shared his speech, said: "Like most eliminationist lawmakers, Yitzhak Pindrus doesn’t have a Twitter account, but apparently he has a private account, because he immediately noted that his incitement to genocide all Israelis 'who contribute to miscegenation' was reported on that."

United Torah Judaism is part of the right-wing opposition camp headed by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's premier for the past 12 years, until his removal in June.

These are not the first controversial comments Pindrus has made.

In March, he said that women who convert to Judaism through Israel's army conversion programme are not Jewish and that their families should go into mourning. He used the Hebrew word "shiksas", a derogatory term, to refer to non-Jewish women.