Hadash MKs: Knesset Speaker Running Israeli Parliament as if it Were Likud Headquarters

The Knesset’s legal adviser announced on Sunday, April 30, that Hadash lawmakers from the Joint List may mark the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem with a “meeting,” but not with an “event.”

MK Aida Touma-Sliman (center) with MK Dov Khenin (right) and former Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel, Muhammad Nafah (left), after the May Day rally held last Saturday in Nazareth

MK Aida Touma-Sliman (center) with MK Dov Khenin (right) and former Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel, Muhammad Nafah (left), after the May Day rally held last Saturday in Nazareth (Photo: Zo Hederech)

The adviser, attorney Eyal Yinon, authorized marking the anniversary by members of Hadash after the Knesset speaker, Yuli Edelstein (Likud), had previously forbidden such activity. Yinon asserted in a letter to lawmaker Aida Touma-Suliman that a “misunderstanding had resulted in the decision by Edelstein.”

Yinon wrote that Edelstein had blocked the request because it had been scheduled to take place on so-call “Jerusalem Day” in one of the Knesset halls.

“The content of meetings that lawmakers hold in the Knesset building have never been censored, so long as exceptional and extreme incidents that are suspected of violating the law or posing a security threat are not involved,” he noted.

However, in response to Yinon’s letter, Touma-Suliman said that she still intends to hold an event – not a meeting – on Jerusalem Day. “Knesset halls are not the private property of the Knesset speaker, and any attempt to interfere with the content or timing of the discussion is illegitimate and a grave attack on the representatives of the public,” she said. “It’s a real shame that the Knesset legal adviser backs the Knesset speaker instead of protecting democratic values and the right to free speech. Edelstein is running the Knesset as if [it were] the Likud headquarters instead of a parliament,” said Aida Touma-Sliman, the Joint List MK whose application to reserve the hall had been denied.

Touma-Sliman appealed to the Knesset legal adviser and to the attorney general for their urgent intervention, demanding that they cancel the decision made by Edelstein. “The decision taken by the Knesset speaker is a severe blow to democracy and freedom of expression and violates the right of Knesset members as emissaries of an entire public to express their opinions,” said Touma-Sliman.

“The speaker is trying to impose his opinion through an intervention that is not within his authority. It is precisely this decision that highlights the importance of this conference. The continuation of the occupation not only harms the Palestinian people, but also has ramifications for the State of Israel and its residents, one of which is trampling on the rights and values of democracy…. The speaker must have forgotten, but the Knesset is a parliament where one conducts discussions and swaps opinions, and it is unnatural that he chose to silence the voice of the opposition. The struggle against this decision is basic to the right to fight against the policy of occupation and the erosion of the margins of democracy.”

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) also responded to the Knesset speaker’s decision to prevent the conference from being held. “The Knesset speaker must understand that the Knesset is the arena of public debate,” Khenin said. “The views held by Edelstein, Bennett and Liberman are not the only legitimate ones; so are the voices of those who oppose the occupation and offer a real future for both peoples.” “Anti-occupation rallies were held in the Knesset last year in large halls and with the impressive participation of organizations, citizens and guests from abroad. We will not allow democracy to be stopped outside the gates of the Knesset. We intend to act by all legal means against this precedent-setting decision,” he added.

Related: Knesset Speaker Bars Conference to Mark 50 Years of Occupation