Tibi walks out of Holocaust memorial ceremony in Knesset to protest Ben Gvir

Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi walks out of the traditional Knesset ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day in which the names of victims are recited, to protest the participation of new far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit extremist faction of Religious Zionism.

The annual ceremony, titled “Each Person has a Name,” featured several new MKs reciting names, including Ben Gvir, Labor’s Emilie Moatti, and Avi Maoz of Religious Zionism’s ultra-conservative Noam faction.

But when Ben Gvir took the stage to recite the names of Iraqi Jews sent to Auschwitz, Tibi walked out in protest.

Tibi explains later that “I will never legitimize a racist who denies my and my people’s human rights.”

Ben Gvir comments that Tibi “hurt the memory of the survivors and victims,” adding that the Ta’al faction leader is “a terror supporter who shouldn’t be in the Knesset.”

At another point during the ceremony, one of the guests berated Maoz, the head of the anti-LGBT Noam faction.

“Aren’t you ashamed to take part in such a ceremony for those who were burned in the Holocaust? It’s a pity you are alive and that your parents weren’t burned there,” the person said, Hebrew-language media reports, without naming him.

Maoz later files a complaint with the Knesset Guard.