The Joint List parliamentary faction stood shoulder to shoulder behind its MKs Hanin Zoabi (Balad) and Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) on Wednesday, June 29, and blasted the “fascistic attacks” being hurled against the two women lawmakers. This followed the reported conversation the same day between Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit regarding the possibility of expelling MK Zoabi from the Knesset. Netanyahu approached the AG on this matter in the wake of Zoabi’s condemnation of the continuing crimes of Israel against Palestinians and her call for lifting the siege of Gaza. “With her actions and lies she has crossed every line and she has no place in the Knesset,” Netanyahu said.
MK Hanin Zoabi (Photo: Joint List)
Earlier on Wednesday Zoabi caused an uproar on the Knesset floor when she strongly condemned the attack by Israeli forces on Turkish activists who were killed while sailing aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara during their participation in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla. “The murderer has to pay compensation to the families of Turkish victims,” she said during a debate discussing the newly-signed rapprochement deal between Israel and Turkey. Zoabi considers Israel’s acquiescing to the deal a “confession” to outright murder. She is also demanding that the Israeli government issue an apology both to the activists who were on board the Mavi Marmara, on which she herself was sailing in an act of solidarity at the time of the attack, and to her from those who have been inciting against her personally for the past six years.
Following her address, right-wing and Labor MKs tried to physically attack Zoabi, several MKs began shouting and moved towards the podium to protest her speech. “Come hit me! Come hit me!” Zoabi shouted to the MKs who were aggressively gesticulating and screaming at her. When Deputy Knesset Speaker Hamad Amar from the far-right Israel Beytenu party demanded that Zoabi apologize for her remarks, Zoabi said: “The Israeli soldiers who committed murder are the ones who need to apologize! You need to apologize!” According to Joint List: “Racist and bloody attacks against Joint List MKs have significantly escalated,” and called for an end to the continued incitement against Arab MKs. “While a despicable crime, the killing by Israeli forces of nine peace activists aboard the Mavi Marmara pales in comparison with the numerically far greater crime of the ongoing nine-year siege of nearly two million people in the world’s largest prison [the Gaza Strip], and the killing of thousands during the Israel’s repeated wars against them,” the statement of the Joint List added.
Also on Wednesday, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev (Likud) spoke with Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein, urging him to remove MK Touma-Sliman from her position as chairwoman of the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality. This followed Touma-Sliman’s refusal to hold a committee meeting in recognition of the role of women soldiers in the Israeli army. “This is a dangerous precedent that disgraces the Israeli Knesset,” said Regev, adding that “we cannot let this matter go. The Knesset Chairman must immediately remove her from her position.”
On Tuesday Channel 2 had reported that the Knesset committee chaired by Touma-Sliman would not be holding any meetings on the day being set aside in mid-July by the Knesset in recognition of female IDF soldiers. Touma-Sliman explained her refusal to hold meetings on the subject, saying: “I never served in the army; no one around me served in the army; I don’t know what the problems are [for women] there, neither is part of my political agenda.”
MK Touma-Sliman became the first Arab and communist lawmaker to head a permanent Knesset committee, after having been elected chairperson of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and Gender Equality in June 2015.
