Left-wing MKs, NGO rail on Knesset speaker’s cancelling of event that calls for clearing Hebron of settlers

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has cancelled an event which would have called for the evacuation of Jewish settlers from the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.

The event, which had been slated to feature addresses from representatives of the Breaking the Silence and B’tselem NGOs as well as MKs from the Joint (Arab) List and Meretz parties, had been slated to take place in the Knesset on Monday, the same day that Czech Republic President Miloš Zeman is scheduled to address the plenum.

Edelstein’s office says it has cancelled all events slated to have taken place in the Knesset that day.

However, the event’s participants are not buying the speaker’s reasoning and are claiming Edelstein’s intentions are purely political.

“The Knesset is not the property of the speaker and the extreme right, and the plenum is not a werewolf fortress of the Likud. It is where a democratic debate is supposed to be conducted, reflecting the range of positions in society. We’re going to hold our event anyway. A new location will be released soon,” Joint List MK Dov Khenin tweets.

The event is titled “Hebron first” and calls for the evacuation of Hebron’s Jewish settlers as a first step toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.