MK Merav Michaeli (Zionist Union) apologized on Thursday evening for saying the Regulation Law was like a law permitting the rape of children.
"This, of course, is not what I meant. I apologize if the opposite came out. There is no place for comparison," Michaeli tweeted in response to a tweet by MK Yehuda Glick (Likud).
Speaking earlier Thursday in a radio interview, Michaeli said, "Let's say that today we passed a law permitting adults to have sexual relations with boys and girls under the age of five. Can every law be passed? If you have 20 years of propaganda saying that everyone who opposes it is a traitor to Israel and Judaism...then maybe it could pass. I mean no one can pass any law."
The remarks were condemned by MK Yifat Shasha-Biton (Kulanu), head of the Knesset Special Committee for the Rights of the Child, who demanded Michaeli apologize.
"The comparison made by Merav Michaeli between the Regulation Law and pedophilia is provocative and disgusting," Shasha-Biton said. "When [MK] Bezalel Smotrich said of the Amona evacuation that it was like a rape many MKs were angry with him, and rightly so. Merav crossed a red line with this slanderous comparison which should not have been spoken."
"I expect her to apologize immediately for this mind-boggling comparison. Enough with the contempt for the victims of sexual offenses. Enough with the contempt for the helpless. Enough with the contempt for small children," Shasha-Biton continued.