U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt January 20, 2018. (Reuters Photo)
JERUSALEM, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Israel's Joint List Arab-Jewish party said Saturday that his party will boycott U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Israel scheduled to start on Sunday.
Pence is expected to land at the Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, marking the first visit by a senior U.S. official since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6.
But Ayman Odeh, the leader of Israel's third largest party, said Pence is a "dangerous person."
Pence "harbors a messianic vision entailing the ruination of the entire region," Odeh said on his twitter account.
Pence "comes as the emissary of an even more dangerous man (Trump), a political pyromaniac, racist, and a misogynist, who should not lead the way in our region," he added.
Odeh also said his 13-seat party in the 120-seat parliament will boycott Pence's scheduled address to the parliament on Monday.
The U.S. vice president's three-day trip to Israel includes meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, as well as a visit to the Western Wall, a Jewish holy site in East Jerusalem.
Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it shortly afterwards, claiming it part of its indivisible capital. The move, however, has never been recognized internationally.
Last December, Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which received international criticism and sparked renewed violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing so far at least 13 Palestinians and an Israeli.
