An Israeli Arab legislator claims that naming a new space center in his hometown after the late Ilan Ramon, Israel's first and only astronaut, would offend the country's Arab citizens and his constituents.

Ahmed Tibi of the United Arab List on Tuesday requested to scrap plans to name the space center in the northern Arab town of Taybeh after Ramon, a payload specialist who was killed along with six other crew members of the Columbia space shuttle in February 2003.

In a letter to Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, Tibi cited Ramon's illustrious career as a fighter pilot in the Israel Air Force, during which "he was involved in bombing civilian populations," in justifying the request.

Prior to being selected for NASA's astronaut training program, Ramon spent 24 years piloting fighter jets in the IAF and attained the rank of Colonel. In 1981, he was the youngest of eight F-16 pilots who took part in Operation Opera, Israel's strike on Iraq's unfinished Osiraq nuclear reactor, and a year later flew combat missions over Lebanon.

His son, Asaf, was killed in 2009, just months after graduating from the IAF's Flight Academy, when the F-16 he was flying crashed during training.

"I was shocked to discover that the space center in Taybeh will be named after Ilan Ramon," Tibi wrote in his letter to the science minister, noting that "despite the Ramon family's tragedy, we are talking about a fighter pilot who took part in air strikes on civilian populations during the first Lebanon war and in attacks in other Arab countries."

"Dedicating a center in his honor in an Arab community is tasteless and unjustified and may hurt the feelings of its residents and the Arab public in general," Tibi reasoned.

The lawmaker, an outspoken critic of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, suggested naming the center, whose construction is being underwritten by the government and the Ramon Foundation, after a Muslim space scientist or calling it the "Taybeh Space Center," according to the Ynet news site.

Hershkowitz responded to the letter, saying that Tibi "crossed a red line" and was "causing great damage, particularly to the public he represents."

"The space center will be named after Ramon, an Israeli hero who was instrumental in fighting Islamist terror both inside Israel's borders and abroad," the minister said in a statement.