For those not aware, the Israeli Knesset has a reputation as a place for bare-knuckle political brawling. But deliberations today, I think descended even farther below the normal level of screaming mayhem and general tomfoolery.
Israeli Palestinian MK Chanin Zoabi joined the Gaza flotilla and testified that IDF commandos fired on her boat before landing on it and killing 9 other passengers including a Turkish-U.S. citizen. Today, she bravely returned to the Knesset and attempted unsuccessfully to exercise her right to address the political body of which she is a member.
Profile for Facebook group calling for murder of MK Zoabi
In case you were wondering, this didn’t earn her any fans on the far right of the political spectrum. In fact there was a veritable cat fight and near fisticuffs, including an episode when one MK approached the rostrum and appeared to try to assault her, before being held back by security. She was called a spy and traitor and told (in very bad Arabic by one rightist) to go back to Gaza where she belonged. I’m pretty sure her mother and father’s reputations didn’t come out very well either in terms of the curses hurled at her. This is not an edifying sight if you have any sympathy for the State of Israel. Here is the font of Israeli democracy polluted by the spew of hate. Here is a young Israeli Palestinian woman nearly pummeled for exercising her rights as an Israeli citizen to protest her government’s policies.
Everything that is wrong with the State of Israel currently is on display in this six minutes of eye-opening video. Watch it and weep.
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