Arab MKs mostly absent during singing of national anthem; Ben Gvir taunts Eisenkot bloc: Where are your partners?’

By Ariela Karmel

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

As the Knesset’s inaugural session concludes with the singing of Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the Otzma Yehudit leader, along with the party’s MK Amichay Eliyahu and other lawmakers heckle Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc over the absence of members of the Joint List and Ra’am, shouting: “Where are your partners?”

Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas is present during the singing of the anthem and, along with Ra’am’s Jewish No. 2 Yoav Segalovitz, appears to be the only lawmaker from the Arab-led parties in the plenum at the time.

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman tweets, “These are the people you want to build a government with?”