West Bank mayors slam Oren Hazan for 'Stalin' slur
“Oren Hazan – enough!” the petition reads.
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: FEBRUARY 4, 2018 01:43Likud MK Oren Hazan(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Sixteen West Bank municipality heads came out against Likud MK Oren Hazan for his most recent outburst, in which he called former Soviet prisoner of conscience Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein “Stalin.”“Oren Hazan – enough!” a petition the mayors circulated on Friday reads. “We, the heads of municipalities in Judea and Samaria, were shocked by the recent behavior of MK Oren Hazan and the nickname ‘Stalin’ that he gave the former Prisoner of Zion Yuli Edelstein.”According to the mayors, “there are limits in the political discourse that cannot be crossed, and comparing a Prisoner of Zion to a mass murderer who persecuted Jews for being Jewish is outrageous and requires condemnation and an apology.“We support the Knesset speaker and call on Likud members to denounce this shameful behavior,” they wrote.Among the signatories are well-known Likud members and supporters, such as Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel and Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi.Hazan, who is known for his provocative behavior, compared Edelstein to the murdering tyrant from the Knesset’s stage Wednesday, because, earlier in the day, Edelstein enforced a rule ejecting him from the plenum after disrupting a special Knesset meeting.Also on Wednesday, the Knesset Ethics Committee gave Hazan its maximum punishment, a six-month suspension from all Knesset activities other than voting, for complaints of sexual and racist harassment of fellow lawmakers. In the speech in which he called Edelstein “Stalin,” Hazan also floated a conspiracy theory by which Edelstein is working with Arab MKs to oppress him and keep him from speaking.MKs Hilik Bar of the Zionist Union and Bezalel Smotrich of Bayit Yehudi organized a walkout with other lawmakers while Hazan spoke.
