Lawmakers vote to make far-right MK Sukkot head of Knesset Education Committee

The Knesset House Committee votes 8-6 in favor of appointing far-right legislator Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party as chair of the Knesset Education Committee.

Sukkot, who was recently questioned by police over his participation — along with other coalition MKs — in a mob that rioted and broke into the IDF’s Sde Teiman military base, enters into verbal confrontations with opposition lawmakers during the debate over his appointment and subsequent vote.

Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi calls Sukkot a “neo-Nazi” while Sukkot accuses the Arab lawmaker, who is then removed from the chamber, of being a terror supporter. During the vote itself, Tibi and Yesh Atid MK Meirav Ben-Ari yell that Sukkot should be given other titles in addition to chairman, such as “Shin Bet interrogee,” a “base breaker-into” and a “mosque arsonist.”

Before becoming an MK, Sukkot was a prominent radical settler activist who was arrested at least three times for his actions during demonstrations outside the home of the head of IDF’s Central Command. He was arrested in 2010 by the police due to Shin Bet suspicions that he was involved in the arson of a mosque in the northern West Bank, close to where he lived in the Yitzhar settlement. He was not charged over the incident.