Coalition members to boycott speeches by Joint List’s MKs
Arab MKs, angered by sanction over their absence from Peres funeral; walk out of Netanyahu’s speech inaugurating Knesset session
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Knesset members from the Likud-led governing coalition are planning to stage a walkout during all plenary speeches by Joint List lawmakers, over the predominantly Arab faction’s decision not to send any representatives to the funeral of former president Shimon Peres.
MKs from the six parties in the coalition will leave the Knesset chamber when members of the Joint List speak from the podium during all sessions this week, coalition chair David Bitan told reporters Monday.
In response, the Joint List Knesset members walked out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech inaugurating the Knesset’s winter session on Monday.
Knesset members were returning from a three-month summer recess during which Peres, the longest-serving MK in Israel’s history as well as a former prime minister, died.
In the wake of his death, the Joint List announced that its members would not participate in the funeral, citing a “complicated” history.
Party chair Ayman Odeh defended the unanimous decision to stay away from the funeral, saying at the time that it was a “national day of mourning in which I have no place; not in the narrative, not in the symbols that exclude me, not in the stories of Peres as a man who built up Israel’s defenses.”
Responding to Bitan’s announcement Monday, Odeh told his party’s faction meeting that he was “not surprised” at the move, and noted what he called “fascist and racist policies” of the government.
“Even if you leave the plenum, even if you shut your eyes really tightly, we will still be here,” he said. “We will continue acting in all arenas, including the parliamentary one, to promote peace and equality.”
Instead, he said, addressing the plenum without coalition members present would be an “excellent opportunity to speak directly to the public without interruptions.”
Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi tweeted that the coalition’s boycott of his faction’s speeches would be “completely unprecedented.”
The boycott of the 13-member coalition of Arab parties, the fourth-largest faction in the Knesset, was initiated by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who leads the Yisrael Beytenu Party, and is supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking at Yisrael Beytenu’s faction meeting, Liberman praised the planned walkout, calling the Joint List MKs “representatives of terror groups in the Israeli government” who are “not legitimate [and] not wanted here.
“I hope that same boycott will continue until the end of the session, and will not be a one-time thing,” he said.
