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Posted By admin on June 25, 2021

A shouting match erupted between far-right MKs and Arab and left-wing lawmakers in the Knesset Tuesday, disrupting an event titled After 54 years: From Occupation to Apartheid.

The event was hosted by MK Aida Touma-Sliman of the opposition Joint List party and MK Mossi Raz of Meretz, a party that is a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts government.

Razs involvement was sure to raise hackles within the coalition, which was formed under the understanding that its rightist and leftist parties would avoid contentious issues in order not to rock the boat. One of the right-wing MKs who attended the event is the coalitions Abir Kara of Bennetts Yamina party.

During the event, representatives of various left-wing human rights groups presented reports about the situation in the West Bank since 1967. The organizations included BTselem, Adalah, Peace Now, Yesh Din, Gisha, Breaking the Silence and Human Rights Watch.

Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman attends an event titled After 54 years: Between occupation and Apartheid in the Knesset on June 22, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

Religious Zionisms extremist MK Itamar Ben Gvir attended the event and hurled insults at several Arab lawmakers, calling organizers Touma Sliman and Raz terrorists and terror supporters and shouting the same accusation at Joint List MKs Ofer Cassif and Ahmad Tibi.

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Cassif retorted by saying: Shut your mouth, you piece of shit, racist fascist.

Aida, you dont condemn [it] when a soldier is murdered, Ben Gvir shouted at Touma-Sliman. Youre a terrorist, Im willing to remove my [parliamentary] immunity, sue me. Well teach you what democracy is.

Religious Zionism MK Itamar Ben Gvir argues during an event titled After 54 years: Between occupation and Apartheid in the Knesset, June 22, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

Amichai Chikli, a rebel Yamina MK, labeled the event a disgrace and on Monday sent a letter asking the Knessets legal adviser and events department to prevent the participation of organizations he said were undermining Israel in the international arena.

This is a serious act of political sabotage and it is unbearable that it should take place within the walls of the Knesset, Chikli said.

Chikli said that he was most concerned about the involvement of Human Rights Watch, one of the worlds best-known rights groups, saying that the organization works for the delegitimization of Israel and should not be permitted to participate. HRWs Omar Shakir, the New York-based rights groups director for Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, was expelled from Israel in 2019 after a lengthy court battle when the country accused him of supporting boycotts of the Jewish state.

American citizen Omar Shakir, the director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, is pictured at Ben Gurion Airport on November 25, 2019, after being expelled from Israel. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Authorities said at the time that Shakirs expulsion was the first from inside Israel under a 2017 law allowing the deportation of foreigners who support a boycott. The move was condemned by international bodies, with the United Nations warning of a shrinking space for human rights defenders to operate in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

When Shakir started talking via video at Tuesdays event, Ben Gvir called out: How can we let him speak here, in the Knesset?

Earlier this year HRW said that Israel was guilty of the crimes of apartheid and persecution because of discriminatory policies toward Palestinians within its own borders and in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel strongly rejected the accusations.

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'Terrorist,' 'fascist': MKs hurl insults at Knesset 'occupation-apartheid' event - The Times of Israel

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