MK Danny Danon (Likud) protests the decision to have Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh join a Knesset Holocaust delegation to Europe, while Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, also of the Likud, praises Barakeh for accepting his invitation and chastises Danon.
The delegation will take part in Holocaust commemorations in Auschwitz on Jan. 27, which was designated by the United Nations as International Holocaust Day in 1995.
Danon asked Knesset House Committee Chairman MK Yariv Levine to call a committee session on the inclusion of Barakeh in the Holocaust delegation. “A Knesset Member who has expressed himself publicly, time after time, against the State of Israel, the IDF, and the country’s institutions, should not be asked to represent Israel in an official delegation,” Danon said, “and certainly not in a ceremony of such emotional importance for the Jewish People, one that expresses more than anything else the importance of the State of Israel to the Jewish nation.”
The committee will hold the requested session next week, with the participation of Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, who tendered the invitation to Barakeh.
Rivlin responded unexpectedly sharply to Danon’s criticism: “I feared that MK Barakeh would be strongly criticized by Holocaust deniers, and I admire him for his courageous acceptance of my invitation. I did not expect the insulting response to come from a Jewish MK – and especially someone who himself refused to participate in the delegation. I am sometimes embarrassed by various actions of Knesset Members. I can only be ashamed of such an illogical and unethical response.”
An aide to MK Danon said that Danon is participating in a World Likud convention at that time, and that many other MKs are not participating in the delegation. “Rivlin’s response is not at all to the point,” he said.
Barakeh himself said, “It is precisely us, the Palestinians, who can and should connect with the Jewish pain and memory of the Holocaust.” Pro-Palestinian elements often compare themselves to Jews in the Holocaust, and Israelis to the Nazis.