Genderist (radical feminist) MKs and activists pressured the Likud party and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday to take action against MK Oren Hazan, who has been accused – in a television report – of arranging prostitutes and drugs for guests at a casino he ran in Bulgaria before entering the Knesset.
MK Hazan has been derided by genderist MKs as no less than "a pimp."
Two other feminist activists dared to go against the grain, however, and issued a statement calling the campaign against Hazan “a badge of shame” for feminists.
"It is unacceptable that a person who has trafficked in women will take decisions pertaining to women's lives, and hold representative positions,” 29 genderist activists wrote in a letter to 29 Likud MKs, including Netanyahu, and excluding only Hazan.
They demanded Hazan be immediately removed from all of his Knesset roles until a formal inquiry into the allegations is completed. They also demanded a public denouncement of the phenomenon of “pimping in women, buying women and prostitution.”
What about bigamy?
Meanwhile, the two young activists who describe themselves as liberal feminists issued a statement criticizing the statement by the 29 genderists. Morin Hayo-Hemo and Nitzan Senior declared on Facebook that the feminist letter to Likud MKs does not represent all women and that Hazan has a right to be presumed innocent until found guilty of an offense.
The letter to Likud MKs is “the exact opposite of feminism,” they argued, and “a badge of shame upon us, as feminists.”
They pointed out that the radical feminists have been utterly silent about Bedouin Arab MK Taleb Abu Arar (Joint List), who has two wives and is now in his second term as MK.
"It is unthinkable that a solitary journalistic expose triggers massive action,” they argued, “but an MK who leads a bigamist lifestyle in contravention of Israeli law receives no criticism or mention.”
MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List), Chair of the Knesset's Committee for Advancement of Women, said that she was “shocked” by the information that was published about Hazan. “A public representative must uphold moral standards,” she explained. “Prostitution is a disgraceful exploitation of one of the underprivileged elements of society,” she added, and “it is simply unacceptable that an MK who is supposed to set an example for others be involved in this.”
Needless to say, she said nothing about Abu Arar, who is a member of her own party.