Jewish Home bugged by MK calling its leader a ‘cockroach’

An opposition lawmaker called Education Minister Naftali Bennett a “cockroach” during a heated Knesset session on Wednesday, leading the minister’s right-wing Jewish Home party to cry foul over the lack of media outrage.

“[The Likud party should] step on this cockroach named Naftali Bennett,” Zionist Union MK Yoel Hasson said during a stormy debate

Following Hasson’s comment, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) complained of media bias, saying that if the shoe were on the other foot the press would be up in arms.

“If an MK from the right were to say to [Hasson] ‘step on this cockroach named [Zionist Union MK] Tzipi Livni’ we would see push notifications from all of the media and calls to remove him from the Knesset. But Yoel Hasson is from the left,” she said.

In response to Shaked, Hasson said he had immediately apologized for the comment, while also calling on right-wing lawmakers to own up to any incendiary remarks they make.

“Because you are known as a refined and polite person, Ayelet, I wanted you to know that I apologized on the spot and this [was] definitely not an appropriate remark. I hope you will adopt this approach for yourselves,” he tweeted.

Hasson made the remark during a session of the Knesset House Committee, during which members discussed the special committee established to shepherd the passage of the so-called “Jewish state” bill that would enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish nation-state in its Basic Laws.

The nation-state bill, proponents say, would put Jewish values and democratic values on equal footing. Critics, however, say the bill effectively discriminates against Israel’s Arab and other minority communities, while also undermining the country’s Jewish character.

Both Jewish Home and Likud have voiced support for the bill, while the Zionist Union has opposed it in its current form.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.