Zoabi at the Knesset's Education Committee, Monday
MK Zoabi removed from Knesset committee after calling IDF soldiers 'murderers'
During discussion on bill banning left-wing organizations from schools, Arab lawmaker says 'the army occasionally murders people'; Education Committee Chairman MK Yakov Margi replies, 'IDF soldiers are operating in an impossible reality.'
Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi of the Arab Joint List was removed from a meeting of the Knesset's Education Committee on Monday after referring to IDF soldiers as "murderers".
"A person is a murderer even if he committed murder just once in his life, so that's what we can call the army, which murders occasionally and not every day of its life," MK Zoabi said during a discussion of a proposed law authorizing the education minister to ban left-wing organizations from entering schools.
MK Zoabi (center) before being removed by ushers from the Education Committee meeting
"IDF soldiers are not murderers," the committee's chairman, MK Yakov Margi, responded before ordering Zoabi to leave the room. "They are operating in an impossible reality."
MK Anat Berko of Likud shouted at Zoabi, "You won't call IDF soldiers murderers, you and your terrorist friends." Berko was removed from the meeting too after ignoring the chairman's request to be quiet.
"Is it appropriate to say that all Arabs are murderers? What kind of comparison is that?" MK Shuli Moalem of the Bayit Yehudi faction said. "IDF soldiers are dealing with a difficult situation, which you people are creating. Terrorists are getting killed because of their actions. You should be ashamed of yourself."
Before leaving the room, Zoabi asked for permission to collect her belongings. "Perhaps you left some of your stuff on the Marmara too," Moalem told her.
