Knesset speaker hits back after Lapid slams him for bringing Paraguayan official to PM’s trial

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana accuses Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of “speaking out of ignorance” for criticizing Ohana’s decision to bring his Paraguayan counterpart to the Tel Aviv District Court this morning to lend support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was giving testimony in his criminal trial on corruption charges.

Following the visit, during which Raúl Latorre told Netanyahu that “we are here to give you our full support,” Lapid declared that Ohana’s actions were “a disgrace” because “instead of taking him to [October 7 hotspot] Nir Oz, they’re taking him to the courthouse.”

Reacting to Lapid, Ohana says he also took Latorre to communities ravaged in the 2023 Hamas onslaught.

“Do you want to compete over who has taken more leaders there? I’m ready. We were there not long after October 7,” he says, after which Latorre returned home “and passed resolutions in parliament expressing solidarity with Israel and recognizing Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations,” Ohana says in a video message sent to the press.

“In the midst of the war, Paraguay opened its embassy in Jerusalem and voted with Israel in every UN vote, even when Israel was in a small minority. Ahead of the current visit, we requested and received a meeting with the prime minister in his office. He, in turn, requested — and was refused by the judicial system — to change the date of his hearing, so we were forced to arrive and hold the meeting at the courthouse. That is indeed a disgrace, [but] whose?” Ohana continues, accusing Lapid of attacking “one of Israel’s greatest friends in the world.”

“Being in opposition to the government is important; being in opposition to the State of Israel is a disgrace. And that, Opposition Leader Lapid, is what you did today,” Ohana argues.