Knesset Member Wasil Taha (Balad) filed a complaint Tuesday with Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz against Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman following a verbal clash between the two in the Knesset plenum.
Ahead of the approval of the appointment of Ehud Barak as Defense Minister on Monday, Minister Lieberman's speech from the Knesset dais was interrupted by MK Taha. At which point, Lieberman attacked, saying, "It's a shame that Hamas doesn't take care of you. You are an ally of terrorists and in any [other] country, they would have you tried before a military court for treason."
In response to Lieberman's outburst, MK Talab A-San'a (Ra'am-Ta'al) said of the Strategic Affairs Minister, who was born in the former Soviet Union, that he "is a representative of the Russian mafia and acts like a bully. It is an embarrassment that the government doesn't reject him. What he has done is give permission to murder." A-San'a called upon the government to "state its position regarding [Lieberman's] racist party,
"It's a shame that Hamas doesn't take care of you." - Minister Lieberman to Balad MK Taha
whose agenda is to place divisions between the state and its Arab citizens."
In his subsequent letter to Mazuz, MK Taha wrote that Lieberman's words constitute "unequivocal threats" on his life. "These things are incitement to murder, or at least incitement to do physical harm," he explained.
Taha is a member of the Arab nationalist party that was headed by Azmi Bishara, who recently fled the country amid charges that he assisted the Hizbullah in its war with Israel in the summer of 2006. In March of this year, Taha traveled to an enemy state, Syria, with Bishara, fellow Balad MK Jamal Zahalka, and two former Arab party MKs. The delegation of Israeli Arab representatives met with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and other Ba'ath party leaders in Damascus.
Ahead of the approval of the appointment of Ehud Barak as Defense Minister on Monday, Minister Lieberman's speech from the Knesset dais was interrupted by MK Taha. At which point, Lieberman attacked, saying, "It's a shame that Hamas doesn't take care of you. You are an ally of terrorists and in any [other] country, they would have you tried before a military court for treason."
In response to Lieberman's outburst, MK Talab A-San'a (Ra'am-Ta'al) said of the Strategic Affairs Minister, who was born in the former Soviet Union, that he "is a representative of the Russian mafia and acts like a bully. It is an embarrassment that the government doesn't reject him. What he has done is give permission to murder." A-San'a called upon the government to "state its position regarding [Lieberman's] racist party,
"It's a shame that Hamas doesn't take care of you." - Minister Lieberman to Balad MK Taha
whose agenda is to place divisions between the state and its Arab citizens." In his subsequent letter to Mazuz, MK Taha wrote that Lieberman's words constitute "unequivocal threats" on his life. "These things are incitement to murder, or at least incitement to do physical harm," he explained.
Taha is a member of the Arab nationalist party that was headed by Azmi Bishara, who recently fled the country amid charges that he assisted the Hizbullah in its war with Israel in the summer of 2006. In March of this year, Taha traveled to an enemy state, Syria, with Bishara, fellow Balad MK Jamal Zahalka, and two former Arab party MKs. The delegation of Israeli Arab representatives met with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and other Ba'ath party leaders in Damascus.