MK expelled from Knesset for heckling

MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) was removed from the Knesset plenum after being called to order three times during a marathon of minute-long speeches in which Meretz MKs read out loud from a report by a left-wing NGO.

The Meretz MKs read excerpts from a report by Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects testimony soldiers on their combat experience. The testimonies tend to describe actions taken on the field which can be seen to be morally reprehensible outside the context of war.

Gal heckled the Meretz MKs, shouting that they were “collaborators, you are criminals and should be ashamed of yourselves.”

In response, Joint List MK Dov Khenin said, “I commend reading the testimonies in the plenum and I suggest that all MKs should read them and reflect. When you refuse to listen it does not change reality.”

Likud MK Oren Hazan said: “When I hear the MKs here I am suddenly confused and feel like I’m in the parliament of the Palestinian Authority. When we were sworn in on March 31 I meant I was pledging myself to both the State of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF. The ease with you allow yourselves to sleep at night when our brothers are risking their lives for you – that cannot go unanswered. MK [Zahava] Gal-on, I am ashamed of you.”