Likud’s Golan made a minister, ejected from Knesset plenum during row minutes later
Approved to lead new Ministry for Advancement of the Status of Women, firebrand lawmaker is then removed from session after calling opposition MK ‘depraved, lying woman’
The Knesset on Monday approved hard-right Likud lawmaker May Golan as Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women, after the proposal that she become Israel’s consul general in New York sparked backlash last month.
US Jewish groups and the Biden administration had objected to Golan taking up the important diplomatic post due to her past incendiary rhetoric. The far-right lawmaker is known for her brash style and making outrageous statements, such as calling former prime minister Naftali Bennett a “suicide bomber.”
Lawmakers approved Golan’s appointment as a minister by a vote of 38-23, and established the new ministry, a day after the Knesset opened its summer session on Sunday.
Minutes after the vote, Golan unleashed a tirade against an opposition lawmaker and was booted from the plenum.
Opposition MK Merav Ben-Ari of the Yesh Atid party had addressed the Knesset and criticized Golan for “dodging” compulsory military service; Golan has issued conflicting reasons for why she didn’t serve.
Golan took offense at the remarks and began yelling at Ben-Ari, calling her “a wretched, hypocritical, depraved and lying woman.”
Ben-Ari retorted that Golan is an “embarrassment and disgrace to the Knesset.” She added that she will file a complaint against Golan with the Knesset Ethics Committee.
A furious Golan shouted back, “You are a hypocrite and a liar. That is what you are and that is what you will be all your life.”
Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi, who was presiding over the meeting, ordered that Golan be removed from the hall. The newly installed minister at first refused and it took four Knesset ushers, one of them a woman who was physically restraining the lawmaker, to eventually convince her to leave.
מהרגעים המכוערים של הכנסת. מאי גולן, דקה אחרי שמונתה לשרה, באוצר מילים קשה לשמיעה: ״עלובה, מנוולת, שקרנית, צבועה״.
איזה חוסר כבוד בעיקר לעצמה pic.twitter.com/SDA1mOlGr5
— יקי אדמקר (@YakiAdamker) May 1, 2023
Golan’s new ministry will be established through a transfer of the relevant powers from the Social Equality Ministry, headed by MK Amichai Chikli.
Before the vote to approve her position, Golan addressed the plenum and accused left-wing lawmakers and organizations of not speaking out against illegal migrants accused of rape and violent assaults of women in Tel Aviv because, she said, it doesn’t serve their interests to be hostile to migrants.
Golan, a resident of Tel Aviv and longtime campaigner against illegal migrants who are housed in the city, said, “I came from the fight against infiltrators in south Tel Aviv, where I met women who were raped and beaten” by migrants.
“This does not serve the overarching goal of the left” who are “sitting quietly and not talking about it,” she said.
Golan first made a name for herself in politics by campaigning for the expulsion of African asylum-seekers, an issue she has continued to champion despite accusations of racism. In 2012, she sarcastically told a rally in South Tel Aviv that if her claim that migrants were raping and killing Israelis was racist, then “I am proud of being a racist.”
In 2013, Golan ran for office with the hardline Otzma L’Yisrael party, which failed to win enough votes to make it into the Knesset. The faction was a precursor to the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, now led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Golan more recently joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, serving briefly in the Knesset in 2019 before re-entering parliament in 2020 and remaining since.
Throughout, she has promoted the image of herself as a far-right rabble-rouser who refuses to be muzzled. In 2021, she told the Israel Hayom daily that she did not plan to moderate her speech as a lawmaker, labeling herself “the mother of politically incorrect.”
Golan had been promised the ministerial-level position in charge of advancing the status of women in society, but a scheduled Knesset vote to confirm her appointment to the cabinet last month was dropped from the agenda at the last minute.
According to several reports in Hebrew-language media, the vote was nixed because Netanyahu was pressuring Golan to forgo the ministerial position in order to instead become consul general in New York.
However, after the backlash against her becoming consul, unnamed senior government officials cited in Hebrew media reports said the Prime Minister’s Office had come to understand that the appointment was not suitable and that Golan was not inclined to accept the position in any case.
