MK Orly Levy-Abekasis (Likud) was asked on Thursday to leave a discussion of the Knesset Finance Committee on the instructions of the Knesset Committee chairman, and decided to take her anger out on the female usher who accompanied her as she exited the room.
"Get your hands off me. You’re rude. I'd rather she touch me. Don't touch me," Levy-Abekasis told the usher.
Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy condemned MK Levy-Abekasis’ behavior and said that "the verbal violence used by members of the opposition has crossed all borders. Knesset employees will not be the punching bag of MKs who have lost all control. Every minute that passes without an Ethics Committee deteriorates this building into deep abysses."
MK Shirley Pinto (Yamina) called the usher after the incident. "I just now called the wonderful Marina, in order to calm her down. No Knesset member has any right to shout at a Knesset employee, they are employees of the Knesset and not slaves of the Knesset. I intend to contact the Speaker of the Knesset urgently in order to clarify the conduct when it comes to Knesset employees," Pinto said.
MK Mossi Raz (Meretz) responded to the incident and said, "A dedicated usher who works night and day for Knesset members and citizens is attacked by a Knesset member. Bullying that will be dealt with by the Ethics Committee when it is established."
Knesset Director General Gil Segal spoke with the usher, Marina Metz, and told her that he condemns the treatment she received from Levy-Abekasis during the discussion in the Finance Committee.
"This is an unusual incident that cannot be ignored. Knesset employees are not anyone's punching bag and any attempt to push them, even when one is emotional, into the political cauldron through violent discourse is fundamentally wrong," Segal stressed.
"Dedicated Knesset employees do their job faithfully for Knesset members around the clock and the degrading treatment that Knesset employee Marina Metz received should not happen again in the future," he added. "The entire Knesset, its employees and elected representatives, appreciates and supports the restraint and composure that Marina demonstrated during the incident and strengthens her hands."
MK Orly Levy-Abekasis responded and said, "As a veteran Knesset member, after many years in the Knesset, in which I conducted substantive battles in committees and at the plenum in which I fought for my views and positions and sometimes such heated discussions ended in my being removed from the committees or the plenum, I have never experienced violent behavior that intruded on my privacy as I felt tonight during the Finance Committee meeting."
"What is puzzling to me is that no one, not the Speaker of the Knesset, not the media or the MKs or even the Director of the Knesset bothered to find out about the incident from my end or at least hear another version. These days, when madness is celebrated, and it seems that everything is judged and reviewed based on one’s position, I am not surprised that the media, together with the coalition, are taking advantage of the situation to create a reality that is not faithful to the truth. But the Speaker of the Knesset I expected to behave in a statesmanlike manner like the Speaker of the Knesset should, and not like MK Mickey Levy, whom we know from the not-too-distant past."
"I am sorry if the usher was hurt and needless to say, I have great appreciation for all the employees of the Knesset wherever they are," stressed Levy-Abekasis.