Ethics panel warns Likud MK of lengthy suspension over insults

Scandal-plagued Likud MK Oren Hazan was again reprimanded by the Knesset’s Ethics Committee on Tuesday for insults against female lawmakers, as the panel warned that his continued misbehavior could land him a lengthy suspension.

According to the complaints against him, Hazan told Joint (Arab) List MK Aida Touma-Sliman in the Knesset plenum on July 4 he would “wipe that ugly smile off your face.”

In response, Hazan said “he did not recall making the statements, but if he said it, he stands behind it since it was during an argument in which harsh things were said,” according to a statement from the committee.

The Ethics Committee confirmed the lawmaker had made the statements.

A second complaint by Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir accused Hazan of telling the 32-year-old lawmaker, the youngest in Israel’s parliament, “You’re a little girl, you scream like a hen.” Hazan, the youth candidate of the Likud, is 35.

Shaffir also complained that Hazan called her by the denigrating nickname “Stam [merely] Shaffir,” which Hazan did not deny, but said he saw no problem with it as the Zionist Union MK had also directed “insulting” comments at him in the past.

The third complaint against Hazan was lodged by LGBT activists over a tweet he wrote about former Arab MK Basel Ghattas upon his entry to prison, which the complainants argued was homophobic. Hazan retorted that the tweet — which among other things urged Ghattas not to “drop the soap” — was alluding to prison rape and was not a jab at homosexuality.

The Knesset Ethics Committee decided to summon Hazan for a “serious dressing down,” after ruling the comments constituted an ethical violation on upholding the dignity of the Knesset.

“The committee would like to note that should MK Hazan continue to express himself in the aforementioned fashion, it will consider imposing more severe sanctions against him, including suspension for a lengthy period,” it warned.

On Monday, the committee gave Shaffir a warning for calling Hazan a “pimp,” a reference to past allegations against him.

Shortly after he went into politics, Channel 2 News reported that Hazan had previously run a casino in Bulgaria where hard drugs and prostitution were allowed. He sued the station’s journalist Amit Segal for libel but the court rejected the bulk of the lawsuit.

Hazan, who entered the Knesset in the last election, has become known as the enfant terrible of Israel’s parliament.

Last month he was banned by the Knesset Ethics Committee from attending plenary and committee meetings for a week due to his intimidating behavior against a Meretz MK in an on-air TV interview, in a stunt he said was coordinated with the hosting television channel.

In December 2015, the Ethics Committee also suspended Hazan from participating in parliamentary debates for a month due to a series of complaints against him. A month earlier, he mocked a fellow lawmaker’s disability in the plenum.

In February 2016, Hazan was again suspended from the committee hearings, this time by his own Likud party after he skipped a plenum vote, resulting in a loss for the party.

Hazan was also suspected of assaulting a senior official in the municipality of the West Bank town of Ariel in 2014 in an apparent dispute over a debt. After the city froze his bank account, Hazan went to the municipal office, where he allegedly cursed and pushed the municipal director.

During US President Donald Trump’s visit in May, Hazan, an self-proclaimed ardent fan of the US president, stole a selfie on the tarmac, infuriating Israeli officials.

Earlier this month, Hazan accused Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein — with whom he has a longstanding feud, though both are members of the governing Likud party — of attempting to “choke” him so that “I won’t have any air and will disappear,” after the parliamentary staff confiscated a portable air conditioning unit from his office.

Hazan, who suffers from asthma, has since attempted to persuade the Knesset doctor to back him against Edelstein, citing his health troubles. All of the Knesset offices have central air conditioning.