Zoabi calls soldiers 'murderers,' is removed from Knesset
Firebrand Arab MK talks about the suffering in Gaza and calls for boycott of Knesset members, while proposing a bill to benefit female MKs; 'responsibility for the suffering of the women in the Gaza Strip lies solely with Israel,' she charges.
Zoabi was presenting a bill proposal to provide additional funding to political parties with a high number of female members.
“After Monday's meeting at the Committee on the Status of Women (about the situation of women in Gaza—ed.), I wondered why this proposal was necessary, since it would bring us more female MKs who are just as insensitive to injustice and oppression as their male counterparts," she said at the outset of her remarks.
“MKs from the Left are actually those who wish to privatize the suffering and disconnect the cause from the effect ... The responsibility for the suffering of the women in the Gaza Strip lies solely with Israel. After Israel destroyed the infrastructure and the agriculture in Gaza, it dictates to the people there how and where to eat,” she added in rage.
Zoabi went on with her charge. “You all should be boycotted. The people in Gaza are refugees, their land is in Israel. Those murdered by the soldiers are not being accounted for. Democracy is a nightmare in the Knesset,” she accused.
Zoabi refused to step down from the podium after her time to speak has passed, ignoring three calls for her to do so, and was consequently ushered out.
Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin, slammed Zoabi for her remarks. “We witnessed here another speech full of hate and incitement that would not have been allowed in a parliament anywhere in the world," he asserted.
"The only reason she’s here is because the High Court has cancelled the Central Elections Committee's decision to ban her in order to avoid this disgrace from happening in the Knesset again," Levin claimed. “This has opened the gates for all traitors and supporters of terrorism."
"I suggest that rather than yelling at MK Zoabi, we should finally fix the real issue since because of that, all of this is happening here—in the judicial system," he added.
“Her proposal is the height of hypocrisy. How many female MKs are there in the Joint List Party? How many women are in the United Arab List and in the Islamic Movement? A bunch of hypocrites. So as long as you’re getting paid for it, having women is good? A woman is simply a currency,” he concluded.
Under Zoabi’s proposal, a faction that has at least one woman for every three people on its Knesset elections list would be eligible for a 15 percent increase in funding.
During the vote, 44 MKs supported the proposal, while two opposed and 33 abstained.
