MK Eitan Broshi (Zionist Union) on Thursday evening stormed out of the festive event marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Jordan Valley, in protest over the fact that a video greeting sent by Labor party leader Avi Gabbay was not shown.
Gabbay sent a recorded greeting due to the fact that he is out of the country. According to Broshi, "In unclear circumstances, contrary to the commitment [of the organizers], the greeting was not shown."
"No trick can erase or blur the responsibility and important contribution of the Labor party to the settlement enterprise in the Jordan Valley, the eastern border of Israel,” said Broshi shortly after he left the event.
Broshi earlier this week expressed support for Gabbay, after he caused a firestorm among Labor MKs when he said he opposed evicting Judea and Samaria residents from their homes in the event of a future peace deal with the Palestinian Authority.
"Gabbay is leading us to a better place, more to the center and not towards being Meretz B. We have members who are more like Meretz and I think they should consider their place within the party," Broshi told Arutz Sheva.
"We see great importance in the settlement enterprise, as the ones who established communities in the Golan Heights, in the Jordan Valley, in the northern Dead Sea, in Gush Etzion and other places," Broshi continued.
"We see the importance in preserving the settlement enterprise, but the debate is not about whether we are evicting or not, but rather about whether we are striving towards a binational state or a compromise centered on concessions of parts of the homeland."
David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, welcomed Gabbay's statement on Thursday.
"I want to tell all my friends in Labor and the Zionist Union - you have forgotten your roots. Avi Gabbay represents the real Labor movement," said Elhayani.
"The Labor party built the majority of settlements, including Elon Moreh and the villages in the Jordan Valley yet today they are denying this part of history," he continued. "Yitzhak Rabin himself said from the Knesset rostrum that he wished that there would be more settlement blocs like in Gaza. The Labor party's position is not to evacuate settlements."