Stav Shaffir
Stav ShaffirNoam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90

Following MK Jamal Zahalka's (Arab Joint List) tirade against the left-wing parties and MK Stav Shaffir (Zionist Union) in particular over the natural gas plan, MK Shaffir opted not to respond to him - turning her anger on the Jewish Home party instead.

"You are the ones who are forgetting Jews," said Shaffir. "Only last month you supported criminal youths while they spat on IDF soldiers over two illegal buildings in Beit El - and now you are completely indifferent to the most valuable natural resource the Land of Israel has, natural gas."

Shaffir was referring to clashes over the destruction of Jewish homes in Bet El, north of Jerusalem, which her party and other left-wing factions blamed on "incitement" from nationalists.

Shaffir then turned her attention to Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, attacking him for not being present at the Knesset vote - despite the fact that he is currently sitting shiva (the seven-day Jewish mourning period) for the death of his father.

"I don't see Naftali Bennett and I don't see Ayelet Shaked," she said.

"In every struggle against political rulings you claim lo techonem [the prohibition against selling land to non-Jews], but when we're talking about the Land of Israel's natural resources it's fine to sell them to foreign billionaires? You who struggle for every hill and every strip of land even if it costs you blood, simply give up when it deals with the country's largest natural resource? Aren't natural resources part of the Land of Israel? Don't they belong to the People of Israel? Isn't your purpose to care for the good of the People of Israel?

"The Torah speaks so much about caring for the foreigner and the widowed and the poor and the weak. You've completely forgotten this. You forgot it so long ago that it doesn't surprise us any more. But the fact that you have forgotten the issue closest to your heart - the Land of Israel - is simply astonishing."

Prior to her speech, Shaffir was subjected to a surprising dressing-down from none other than radical Arab MK Jamal Zahalka, who told her to "stop preaching morality" while labeling left-wing parties "the mother and father of racism."

He singled out Shaffir and accused her of being a snob who never answers him when he greets her.

“Since you came to the Knesset, you never spoke to me! You never told me hello. I try and try to say hello and you do not answer! Racist! The extreme right are at least human beings, they smile at you and say hello. Even Yisrael Beytenu MKs smile to us. But the members of the Labor party are the mother and father of racism! You invented racism!"