Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday he had instructed Yisrael Beytenu party activists to buy thousands of copies of the latest issue of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and distribute them to the public, pushing back against feared Muslim anger over the controversial weekly, according to The Times of Israel.
The directive by Liberman, the head of Yisrael Beytenu, came as an Israeli bookshop withdrew its plan to sell the magazine, after an Arab MK warned it would stoke Muslim fury.
“Israel cannot become an ISIS state — we will not allow radical Islam to intimidate us, and turn the State of Israel into a state that capitulates to threats and compromises the freedom of expression,” Liberman said in a statement, using an alternate term for Daesh.