Joint List faction chairman Ahmad Tibi called Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari “scum” from the rostrum of the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
Tibi said he was outraged at Ben-Ari, because she had said on Channel 12’s Meet the Press program on Saturday night that she was not upset about the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin. Ben-Ari said she made the comment because she believed Abu Akleh’s reports made Israel look bad around the world.
“I will never forgive you for what you said on TV, that you are not sorry about what happened to Shireen,” Tibo told Ben-Ari. “You are the scum of humanity.”
Tibi, who was a close personal friend of Abu Akleh and a neighbor in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina, repeated the word “scum” over and over again after Deputy Knesset Speaker Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beytenu) pleaded with him to take back the word.
עולה אחמד טיבי המחבל בעבודת השוטרים באופן קבוע, שמסית על הדוכן נגד חיילי צה"ל וכוחות הבטחון, קורא לשוטרים פראי אדם ולבסוף כשאני אומרת לו שאני לא צריכה את הסליחה שלו הוא אומר לי שאני חלאת אדם.גועל נפש. באמת שנגמרו לי המילים על הדוכן. הוא חייב ללכת הביתה. https://t.co/em5aiW1Cgm
— מירב בן אריMerav Ben Ari (@Meravbenari) May 18, 2022
Sova made Tibi leave the Knesset rostrum, as Ben-Ari shouted at him that he “should be ashamed.”
Ben-Ari was invited to come up to the rostrum and defend herself. She spoke in tears to the Joint List MKs in the room.
“I never cursed any of you,” she said. “You need to respect this place.”