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Amnesty for pullout objectors?
Bill that would grant pardon to disengagement protestors passes first reading at Knesset; tempers flare as Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On compares Right's conduct to Nazis who exploited German democracy's weakness
Amnon Meranda
A bill that seeks to grant amnesty to disengagement protestors who committed offences as part of the demonstrations against the pullout passed the first reading at the Knesset Tuesday night.
Following the vote, one of the Knesset Members behind the bill, Reuven Rivlin (Likud,) said that "there are days when democracy needs to forgive and leave the past behind. The disengagement was a national trauma and it cannot be compared to any other social crisis."
"The clemency law will assist in mending the rift within Israeli society and correcting the injustice done to families of the evacuees, those who paid the price of democracy in the harshest manner," he said.
During the Knesset session, Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On (meretz) clashed with rightist Knesset members after she said: "I want to tell you, and you better internalize it, even if it's unpleasant – the State of Israel's problem is that for years it has been turning a blind eye to the crimes of the Right. For years."
"So the role of democracy and the role of Knesset members is to protect, and our role, the Israeli Knesset, is to learn the lessons of the Weimer Republic's collapse," she added. "I remind you that democracy in Germany collapsed because it enabled its enemies on the radical Right to exploit it, to exploit the democratic mechanisms, and it undermined its basic powers."
Following Gal-On's words, Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev stood up and yelled in her direction: "You have gone crazy. You crossed all the red lines. It is unthinkable that an Israeli Knesset member will stand at the Knesset podium and say that the Right in Israel conducts itself like the Weimer parliament that brought Hitler to power."
Meanwhile, Knesset Member Uri Ariel told Gal-on that "what you did is an abomination." MK Arieh Eldad added: "As a doctor, I’m telling you – sickening self-hatred is a serious mental disorder…the self-hatred of the Israeli Left is sick and reflects a deeply rooted mental disorder – it has no cure."
Gal-On later told Ynet: "It would be good for Knesset members to learn history. I did not compare Israel to Nazi Germany. I warned about the way Knesset members try to annul indictments, thereby exploiting the democratic mechanisms."
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