Zionist Camp party leader Avi Gabbay and Knesset member Zouheir Bahloul exchanged accusations this week. But the clash between Gabbay and Bahloul, the feeble reconciliation they declared and the silence of the party’s legislators over Gabbay’s public hazing of Bahloul amount to a dangerous milestone in Jewish-Arab relations. They are also a stain on the annals of the veteran left-wing party, whose senior members lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his 2015 election day warning that the Arabs were “flocking in droves” to the ballot boxes, accusing him of incitement against the country’s Arab community.

The incitement against the Arab minority (21%) by Netanyahu, by Israel’s right-wing parties and even by centrist Yesh Atid party chair Yair Lapid (who coined a dismissive name for Arab legislators, calling them the “Zoabis” after controversial lawmaker Haneen Zoabi) is to be expected given their habit of translating Jewish-Arab alienation into populist name-calling. This week, Gabbay — who heads the left-leaning Labor Party and the Zionist Camp faction of which Labor is the senior member — contributed his part.

The highly publicized row started with Bahloul’s announcement that he does not intend to take part in the festive Knesset session marking the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, one of the cornerstones of the Jewish State. Bahloul offered a rational explanation of his decision, saying he had nothing to celebrate. “The Balfour Declaration gave you the right to self-determination, and I’m sure that anyone with half a brain understands that the people of Israel deserve self-determination, but what about my people? In addition to my Israeli identity, I also belong to my Palestinian identity. … I do not think it would be appropriate for me to participate as a free man in the festive session.”

Gabbay’s reaction was unambiguous and resounding, essentially making clear to Bahloul that he was persona non grata in the Labor Party. In media interviews and briefings, Gabbay pledged to remove from the Zionist Camp ticket “people who issue radical statements that do nothing to advance the interests of their constituents.” Gabbay appeared intent on turning his harsh message into a public hazing; otherwise, he would have chosen to take Bahloul to task privately. The powerful message seemed directed, too, at party Knesset members who meant to back Bahloul’s right to express a legitimate view.