Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening reprimanded Likud MK Oren Hazan for mocking MK Karin Elharar (Yesh Atid) over her disability.
"I cannot stand racism, I cannot stand discrimination, I cannot stand abuse, not against you, not against anyone," Netanyahu told the participants at a conference in recognition of Ethiopian immigration activists.
"Something serious happened in the Knesset today. I asked to verify the details and they were indeed verified," he continued.
"A member of Knesset from my faction said something wrong to MK Karin Elharar, which should not have been said, and which I condemn wholeheartedly,” Netanyahu continued, without mentioning Hazan by name. "I called that Knesset member and scolded him and told him that these things must not be said."
Hazan was accused on Tuesday by Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid of mocking Elharar in Monday night's vote on the Enlistment Law, after doing so a week earlier as well.
Elharar, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, initially asked MK Isawi Frej (Meretz) to press her voting button at the plenum, during the votes on the state budget last week. Hazan saw Frej voting twice and accused him of a double vote, which is a criminal offense.
A storm of shouting erupted and quieted down when Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said that he grants Frej permission to vote for Elharar.
On Monday night, Lapid said, Hazan mocked Elharar during the vote on the Enlistment Law, and asked her if she needed to be assisted by Frej once again.
Hazan denied Monday’s incident, and wrote on Facebook Tuesday: "I never spoke to MK Elharar and said the things that were written about me, this is a total lie."
"As a person who spent two-thirds of his life in hospitals and as a brother of a disabled IDF veteran, I have never, God forbid, mocked any disability she or anyone else has. Anyone who knows me knows it is light years away from me, and as much as they try to blame me for this, it will not catch because it is simply untrue," added Hazan.
Hazan responded to Netanyahu’s remarks on Tuesday evening and wrote on his Twitter account, "Mr. Prime Minister, you are being misled and being fed false information. I never spoke to MK Elharar, let alone insulted her. My conversation was with MK Muallem."