Israeli Arab lawmakers storm out of Knesset session 

As Israel’s Knesset winter session got underway, Israeli-Arab lawmakers stormed out in an attempt to make a show over a plan by other factions to boycott their speeches for their refusal to attend the funeral of the late Shimon Peres.

Israeli-Arab Members of Knesset (MK) walked out of the winter inaugural session on Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got up to speak, supposedly as a preemptive protest against coalition members who planned to boycott them over their refusal to attend the funeral of late President Shimon Peres.

The coalition is angry that the Arab lawmakers defiantly stayed away from the funeral of late President Peres, branding him an “occupier” and a man of violence, and not a man of peace, as the rest of the world regards him.

The Arab lawmakers claimed the coalition’s planned boycott is “anti-democratic, racist and dangerous.”

Most of the coalition members did leave the chamber when the Arab MK’s got up to give their address.

The spat underlines the tensions between Israeli Zionist MK’s and the Arab lawmakers.

Arab lawmakers have been accused for championing the anti-Israel Palestinian cause, while failing to serve their constituency.

By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.

Israeli ArabsIsraeli democracyKnessetPeres