MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) stormed out of the Knesset Channel studio Monday when anchorwoman Orit Nesiel repeatedly cut him off and defended radical Arab MKs, including Hanin Zoabi.
Gal, who was facing Meretz MK Issawi Frej, asked Nesiel to give him "90 seconds" and let him present his case against the Arab MKs from the radical Joint List, after she asked him if he saw them as enemies. “If MK Aiman Ouda goes to the prison and meets mass murderer Marwan Barghouti... and says that he identifies with his political line and values," he began, "is that not a supporter of terror?”
Nesiel interrupted him but Gal fought her off and continued, referring this time to MK Hanin Zoabi, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara terror flotilla, where IDF soldiers were brutally assaulted. He began: “If an MK boards a terror flotilla...”
Freij immediately interrupted him, as did Nesiel, who said “She did not board a terror flotilla... these are not the facts.”
Gal began to get upset and all three began talking at the same time, in classic Israeli political interview style. He berated her: "Who made you the judge here? Are you her spokeswoman? Be a little more of a Zionist. If you think you are from the UN, you are mistaken. You have children here, you have a family here, you live here. Be less of a hypocrite."
Nesiel insisted that she was doing her job as a journalist and that it was he who couldn't deal with tough questions.
Gal repeatedly accused her of being a hypocrite. “Listen well: you are an Israeli journalist, you are a Jewish woman – behave accordingly,” he demanded. “If you want to shut people up here, bring Ahmed Tibi here, bring Hanin Zouabi, bring Aiman Ouda, and run your own Al Jazeera here. Decide what you are, that's all.”
"If you invite me here to just shut me up each time, thank you very much,” he continued. “I am leaving the stage to you and Isaawi.” As she continued berating him and demanding that he “learn to listen to questions,” he stormed out of the studio, not before he called her “an enemy of Israel.”
The Knesset Channel is state-owned and has its studio inside the Knesset building.