Tempers flared in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday between Knesset members and MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), [an Israeli Arab member] after she took part in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Zoabi accused the government during the parliamentary discussion of treating the Israel Navy's bloody raid of a Turkish-flagged ship as a "pirate military operation"....
Zoabi called on the government to open a national panel of inquiry into the incident, and asked why it was so opposed to international calls for an impartial and external probe.
Meanwhile, MK Miri Regev (Likud) accused Zoabi of being "responsible for a double crime: Joining terrorists, and a moral crime against the state of Israel." Regev then called at her in Arabic: "Go to Gaza, you traitor."
"She sat here over a year ago and pledged allegiance to the state of Israel and its laws," Regev claimed. "I have no intention of stifling free speech, but in the case of MK Zoabi - it is not freedom of speech. The Gaza flotilla was a terrorist flotilla and MK Zoabi needs to be punished. We don't need Trojan horses in the Knesset."
Hadash-Ta'al MK Mohammed Barakeh called the Israeli government "a gang of pirates" during the discussion, saying "you are crazy - you swim against the world and harm your nation, driving it down the drain."
Zoabi had been granted the floor by Knesset speaker Reuven Rivli to make a personal statement. The Jersusalem Post adds:
The invitation to Zuabi, led to a breakout of fierce verbal altercations, resulting in the ejection of Kadima MK Eli Aflalo, Balad MK Jamal Zahalka and Israel Beiteinu MK Anastasia Michaeli.
Several more MKs were ejected during Zuabi's speech. Ironically some of the ejected MKs subsequently returned to the chamber, continuing to cause a commotion and receiving further verbal warnings from Rivlin...
[Zuabi] criticized those attacking her, saying "Who is the criminal? Did I murder anyone?".
At this point an MK shouted "check if she has a knife" resulting in uproar.
I am reminded of the results of a recent poll reported by the Jerusalem Post in March:
