Insults and a removal at the first Knesset Arrangements Committee session

The first meeting of the Knesset's newly formed Arrangements Committee was halted after lawmakers traded personal insults across the table, as Ynet, News.co.il and The Times of Israel each reported. Ynet reported that Tally Gottlieb was removed from the session, and that a member of the Joint List shouted "barra, barra", Arabic for "out, out", as she left.

The Times of Israel reported that members of Likud and its allied parties interrupted the proceedings again and again, insulted opponents and accused Arab lawmakers of backing terrorism, while at the same time repeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appeal for a "unity" government. In that outlet's account, the proposed government would be led by Netanyahu and would include all of his bloc. News.co.il reported that the committee chairman was forced to stop the discussion once the shouting began.

How the exchange unfolded

The Times of Israel said the confrontation started almost as soon as the chairman, Roy Folkman of the Yashar party, invited members to speak. Likud lawmaker Erez Tadmor was called a "weapons thief" by another member. The paper noted that Tadmor was convicted, during his army service, of stealing weapons and military equipment, and was sentenced to 45 days in prison. Ynet's first alert on the session cited two of the insults heard in the room: "weapons thief" and a jibe about a member who "blocks roads".

Tadmor then turned on Naama Lazimi of the Democrats. The Times of Israel rendered his word for her as "hen", which drew accusations of misogyny, while News.co.il quoted it as "mekarkeret", a Hebrew word meaning a woman who clucks. The two outlets describe the same remark, translated differently. Tadmor also accused the opposition of joining forces with what he called supporters of terrorism, even as, in his words, his side was offering a hand "in unity".

The Times of Israel added that Tadmor labelled Lazimi a "roadblocker", apparently a reference to her part in protests against the government. Lazimi replied with sarcasm: "There's your unity."

What the Arrangements Committee is

The Knesset is Israel's parliament, and its members are known as MKs. When a new Knesset is sworn in, its permanent committees do not yet exist. A temporary body, the Arrangements Committee, handles parliamentary business in the meantime, including setting out how the standing committees will be composed. Its first meeting is usually a procedural event, which is why a session that had to be stopped drew immediate coverage.

The parties involved

Likud is Netanyahu's party and the largest in his bloc. The Democrats is a left-leaning opposition party, Lazimi's political home. The Joint List is an alliance of Arab-majority parties. Yashar is the party of the committee chairman, Roy Folkman. The Times of Israel described the disruptive lawmakers as members of the coalition, meaning Likud and its partners.

Unity talk against a heated backdrop

The Times of Israel framed the episode around a contrast: lawmakers from Netanyahu's camp were echoing his call for a broad unity government while trading insults with the very parties such a government would need to draw in. Tadmor's own remarks, as quoted, combined both elements, presenting an offer of unity alongside the accusation that his opponents were aligning with supporters of terrorism. Lazimi's reply seized on that tension.

What the reports do not say

The Times of Israel's headline speaks of coalition MKs being removed, in the plural, but the reports name only Gottlieb, and Ynet does not say which party she represents or why the chairman ejected her. None of the reports identifies the lawmaker who called Tadmor a "weapons thief", the Joint List member who shouted at Gottlieb, or whether the session resumed after it was stopped. No response from Tadmor to the misogyny accusations, or from Folkman on the conduct of the meeting, has been reported.