MKs scuffle after settlers arrested for assaulting IDF troops, Palestinians
Commotion breaks out after Knesset speaker boots far-right MKs for yelling in protest over arrests of Homesh yeshiva students; usher accidentally struck in the face
Police early Wednesday announced the arrest of several settlers for allegedly assaulting Israeli troops and Palestinians, sparking a commotion at the Knesset in which lawmakers shouted at each other and an usher was accidentally struck.
The eight suspects — all students at a yeshiva in the illegal outpost of Homesh — were arrested overnight on suspicion of assaulting IDF soldiers and Palestinians in the northern West Bank last month.
According to police, the suspects tried to pass through a military checkpoint but IDF soldiers blocked their way. Police said the settlers then tried to forcibly pass through the checkpoint, pushing and attacking the troops.
They also allegedly assaulted Palestinians in the area.
Two of the suspects had been wounded in a deadly terror shooting outside Homesh in December, according to Hebrew media reports.
After learning of the arrests, and of police searching the suspects’ homes, during the tail-end of an all-night session in the plenum, lawmakers in the far-right Religious Zionism party began yelling in protest, leading Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy to order MK Simcha Rothman out of the chamber.
“You’ve lost your mind. You’re crazy. You will not threaten me,” Rothman shouted at Levy as he was escorted to the hallway behind the plenum, where the commotion continued.
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Fellow Religious Zionism lawmakers Bezalel Smotrich and Orit Strock, who followed Rothman out of the plenum, began shouting at Levy and Yamina MK Nir Orbach in the hallway.
The yelling became so fierce that an usher intervened to try to calm the situation, but he was accidentally elbowed in the face and fell to the ground.
“This Knesset is breaking new records,” an unnamed MK complained to the Ynet news site. “The hallway behind the plenum has always been a place free of confrontations. Knesset members would have a friendly, normal conversation there despite ideological differences. What happened this morning in the Knesset is another new low for this Knesset, which provides sights like no other.”
The Religious Zionism party blamed the Knesset speaker for the incident, charging in a statement that “Mickey Levy’s brutal behavior this morning in the Knesset plenum is another record that has been broken.”
“The use of force and the unprecedented expulsion of MKs Strock and Rothman from the back hallway just because they said something he did not like are illegal, rude and dangerous bullying,” the party said.
In a statement following the incident, Smotrich accused Levy of turning the Knesset ushers into “a private militia to silence his enemies.”
It was later revealed that one of those arrested was Smotrich’s nephew and Struck’s son-in-law.
Smotrich, who leads Religious Zionism, praised his nephew and claimed the arrest was politically motivated.
The Times of Israel Community.