Zoabi rejects the vision of a Jewish state advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and many of the laws passed by the rightwing-dominated legislature, like the law introduced a few months ago whereby non-Jewish prospective citizens would have to pledge their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Zoabi opposes this notion of loyalty because once Israel is 'Jewish', that means privileges to the Jews at our expense. There can be no real equality. I want a fully-democratic, liberal state, a state for all its citizens, Jewish and Palestinians.

A fiery woman, she's been under fire for much of her Knesset tenure. More than her unsettling rhetoric at deconstructing the national ethos of most Jewish Israelis, it's her actions which irk them most.

In May, Zoabi joined the Free Gaza flotilla against the Israeli blockage on Hamas-led Gaza. Israeli commandos conducted a botched assault on the flotilla. She was aboard the MV Marmara on which nine Turkish activists were killed.

Addressing the Knesset shortly after, she described the Israeli raid as a pirate military operation. She had to face the assault of Jewish lawmakers. Go to Gaza, traitor! they shouted in the plenum. Two security guards were assigned for her protection after she received death threats on Facebook.

We managed to break the silence. You keep 1.5 million Palestinians in prison and you want no one to talk about it – you cannot! she says, not hiding her satisfaction.