The Knesset’s winter session opened on Monday with a moment of silence for the more than 1,300 Israelis murdered in Hamas’s attack on Israel last week. After opening statements by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, President Isaac Herzog, far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, the proceedings were disrupted twice by sirens.

Racist Otzma Yehudit party announced shortly after the moment of silence that party MK Limor Son-Har Melech would initiate a vote to expel Hadash MKs from plenum hall.

Hadash-Ta’al Chairman MK Ayman Odeh, during a debate at the plenum, October 16, 2023 (Footage: Knesset Channel)

Far-right Likud MK Taly Gotliv made the same demand while Hadash-Ta’al MKs Ayman Odeh, Ahmad Tibi, and Aida Touma-Sliman spoke during the session. When Tibi took the stand, she marched out while shouting to have him removed from Knesset but came back in for the other two’s speeches.

In her speech, Touma-Sliman compared the Israeli children murdered on October 7 to the children dying in Gaza from Israeli army strikes. She was immediately shouted down by Gotliv and Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari who both said there was no symmetry between the two.

According Touma-Sliman on Monday hostilities entered the tenth day, heavy Israeli bombardments on Gaza, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted bringing the cumulative fatality toll in the Gaza Strip to 2,778 Palestinians deaths. Additional hundreds are missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble. During Odeh’s speech, Gotliv approached the dais while yelling at him and spit at him. She was not expelled from the hall after this move.

On Sunday, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi promoted regulations that would allow him to direct police to arrest civilians, remove them from their homes, or seize their property if he believes they have spread information that “could harm national morale” or “served as the basis for enemy propaganda.” According to draft emergency regulations titled “Limiting Aid to the Enemy through Communication” drafted by the communications minister after consultation with racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the jurisdiction to impose limitations on publications will be sweeping. It will apply to both the general public and the media, as well as both local and foreign media. It will also apply to the publication of factually correct statements, at the minister’s discretion.

The draft defines “aiding the enemy through communication” as the dissemination of information that “undermines the morale of Israel’s soldiers and residents in the face of the enemy,” or information that “serves as a basis for enemy propaganda, including the spreading of the enemy’s propaganda messages,” or information that “aids the enemy in its war against Israel, its residents, or Jews.”

The information covered by the regulations would include both visual and audio content, such as images and text. If the communications minister believes that their broadcast is aiding the enemy, he will be authorized to issue orders to stop the broadcast, orders to seize broadcast equipment, orders to remove a person from a specific area, and orders for law enforcement action in cases of violations of Penal Law Sections 103 (dissemination of subversive propaganda) or 134 (sedition publications).
It should be noted that the draft regulations, as formulated by the communications minister, fully contradict Israel’s laws.

According Haaretz, “Ironically, Karhi himself falls under the definition of offenses he published, having previously expressed contempt for Supreme Court justices, refused to state he will obey Supreme Court rulings, and, six months ago, expressed disdain for reserve soldiers who refused to volunteer (“The people of Israel will get by without you, and you can go to hell”). In an interview with the Galey Israel radio station on Sunday morning, Karhi claimed that the proposed draft emergency regulations were intended to shut down broadcasts of the Al Jazeera network in Israel.

The full speech of Ayman Odeh at the Knesset plenum (Hebrew and Arabic):

https://www.facebook.com/AymanOdeh1975/videos/1074018447307459

The full speech of Aida Touma-Sliman at the Knesset plenum (Hebrew)

https://www.facebook.com/hadash.org.il/videos/222182597352909

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31261