Knesset speaker invites hostage mother Einav Zangauker to discuss her being banned from parliament

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invites Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, to meet with him to discuss her having been banned last week by the Knesset Guard from entering the parliament building due to what the Knesset Spokesperson’s Office called “serious violations of order.”

The meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow.

Ohana’s invitation to Zangauker comes after opposition members of the Knesset Presidium, a key decision-making organ of the legislature, chastised the Knesset speaker for backing the Knesset Guard’s decision to bar Zangauker from the building.

“What terrible cruelty, a mother who sees that her son is not on the lists [for a proposed hostage release agreement],” says Deputy Speaker Orit Farkash-Hacohen.

“What if it were your son? And they weren’t allowing you to have your voice heard for him?” she demands.

At the end of a stormy meeting, Ohana said he would reevaluate the issue, followed shortly afterward by his call to Zangauker to invite her to meet with him.

“The phone call was conducted in a good and respectful atmosphere,” Ohana’s office says.