The Knesset this week reached for the most severe disciplinary action in its rules and voted by a large majority to bar Arab Hadash party member Tawfik Ziad from the next five sessions of the plenary.
Ziad was involved in a heated exchange Monday with Rehavam Ze’evi, leader of the far-right Moledet party, and Likud Knesset members, which culminated in efforts by ushers to remove him forcibly from the rostrum, at the request of the acting speaker.
A separate case involving another Hadash Knesset member, Hashem Mahmid, was deferred Tuesday by the House Committee without a vote.
Taken together, the two incidents are viewed as worrying signs of deterioration in relations between Jewish and Arab politicians in parliamentary life.
Both Ziad’s behavior in the Knesset, and statements made by Mahmid in a visit to the Gaza Strip last week, are regarded as virtually unprecedented in the annals of the Knesset.
Mahmid, an Israeli Arab, was understood to be calling on Palestinians in the territories to resort to violence in their uprising — although he himself denies that this was the intention or import of his remarks.
A number of Likud Knesset members have demanded that he be stripped of his parliamentary immunity, so that he can be prosecuted for incitement.
Ziad’s punishment was determined by the House Committee late Monday night, but he exercised his right of appeal before the full plenary Tuesday.
The Hadash Knesset member claimed he was provoked by a string of racist catcalls from the Likud benches. He denied acting disrespectfully toward the acting speaker, Esther Salamovitch of Tsomet. But it was this aspect of his conduct that moved the entire Knesset, barring his own Hadash colleagues, to vote in favor of the maximum punishment being meted out to him.
Tempers rose at the House Committee on Tuesday, in the discussion of Mahmid’s case, when Likud Knesset members accused the chairman, Haggai Merom of Labor, of deliberately dragging out the proceedings and avoiding a vote in order not to anger the Hadash members during this week of crucial budget votes in the plenary.
Merom hotly denied this accusation and cited his firm stand against Ziad as proof of his objectivity.
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