MK Oren Hazan
MK Oren HazanHadas Parush/Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to remove MK Oren Hazan from the Knesset's State Control Committee due to the fact that he supports the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, Channel 2 News reported Tuesday.

According to the report, Netanyahu will replace Hazan with another Knesset member in an attempt to prevent a vote on the establishment of such a committee.

By law, the State Comptroller can recommend a commission of inquiry if he has a majority on the committee, which has six members from the coalition and five from the opposition.

Netanyahu reportedly does not trust MK Bezalel Smotrich, who represents the Jewish Home party on the State Control Committee, due to the fact that Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett supports the establishment of a commission of inquiry.

Therefore, the Likud is expected to announce on Wednesday that Hazan will be replaced by a more obedient MK who will not vote against the position of the Prime Minister, according to Channel 2 News.

Hazan responded to the report and said, “This is not the first time that they silence Likud members who dare to express their own opinions. It happened with Gideon Sa'ar, with Moshe Kahlon who was forced to step down, with Danny Danon who was fired from his post as Deputy Defense Minister when he criticized the way the terror tunnels were dealt with..with Gilad Erdan who was punished and with Yisrael Katz who lost a ministerial portfolio because he dared to speak up.”

“There is no doubt that this is common practice in the Middle East – the act of beheading so that the rest of the Likud Knesset members will be afraid to talk and raise their heads,” charged Hazan.

Hazan, of course, has gotten into trouble several times since becoming an MK.

In one incident, he was suspended from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for missing some votes which reportedly caused a number of bills to fail.

In response, Hazan withdrew his membership from all other committees and later threatened that he would leave the coalition unless his punishment is lifted.

He is most famously known for his verbal altercations with MKs. He was suspended for one month from the Knesset after he mocked Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharar over her disability.

Hazan subsequently got into a verbal altercation with MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin (Zionist Union), after he teased her party for, in his opinion, not condemning the left-wing NGO Breaking the Silence.

And, just this week, he was reprimanded by the Knesset's Ethics Committee for instigating a commotion in the Knesset involving MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint List).