Ben Gvir, Tibi trade insults at hearing on bill to strip relatives of terrorists of citizenship
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi trade insults in the Knesset House Committee while debating a bill that would allow the government to strip relatives of terrorists of their citizenship and expel them from the country.
“You are a disgrace. You are a failed national security minister,” Tibi declares, followed by reciprocal accusations of supporting terrorism.
“There are no Jewish terrorists,” interjects MK Almog Cohen, a member of Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.
“You are behaving like children in a kindergarten,” shouts a family member of a hostage, who is attending the hearing.
According to the proposal, the interior minister will be granted the authority, following a hearing, to order the deportation of a relative of a terrorist who knew of their family member’s plans in advance and expressed sympathy and encouragement for such a course of action. If approved by the committee, the bill will go to the Knesset plenum for the second and third readings necessary to become law.
אחות החטופה העירה לח"כים בוועדה: "אתם מתנהגים כמו ילדים בגן". השר בן גביר בתגובה: "כן, כן". ח"כ סון הר מלך: "אל תחנכי אותנו"
צפו בדיון הסוער על החוק לגירוש משפחות מחבלים ובעימות בין השר איתמר בן גביר לח"כ אחמד טיבי: "אחמד, החוק חל עליך"@itamarbengvir @Ahmad_tibi… pic.twitter.com/YLDwHMImVh
— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) October 15, 2024
Addressing the possibility that, if passed, the law could be struck down by the High Court of Justice, Ben Gvir states that the court’s justices are also vulnerable to terrorism: they “also walk in the streets, they also go to the supermarket, they also go shopping, they are also exposed to the same scum of the earth.”
Members of the Hadash-Ta’al party have come under public criticism for statements seen as supportive of terror. Party chief Ayman Odeh has praised Latifa Abu-Hamid, the mother of several convicted terrorists, as a “heroine, the mother of heroes,” while MK Aida Touma-Sliman has called members of the Lion’s Den Palestinian terror group “martyrs.”
Ben Gvir was convicted years ago of incitement to violence and supporting a terror group for backing the racist Kach party.