MK Eitam to Arab MKs: One day we will expel you from Israel

Haaretz 13:59 05/03/2008
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent

Tempers flared Wednesday during Knesset plenary session when National Union MK Effie Eitam told Arab MKs that "one day we will expel you from this house, and from the national home of the Jewish people." Eitam expressed his anger at Tuesday's rally in Umm al-Fahm, where demonstrators chanted slogans calling Israel "a Zionazi state" and urging "Gaza martyrs" to carry on with their struggle. "No sane democracy can put up with acts of treason during wartime," Eitam said. "We have to drive you out, as well as everyone else who took part in yesterday's unruly, reckless and treacherous anti-Israel diatribe."

Balad Chairman MK Jamal Zahalka heckled him in turn: "You're a madman, a miserable character, a racist," and was ejected from the debate. Ra'am-Ta'al MK Taleb El-Sana said Eitam should be imprisoned and court-martialed for his conduct as a senior IDF officer during the first Intifada. "He advocates the expulsion of Israeli citizens," El-Sana said. "Eitam belong in history's garbage can." Eitam said in response that he did not call to expel the Israeli Arab community entirely, only Arab MKs and those who participated in Tuesday's rally.