WHO WERE THE HECKLERS AT HARPER’S SPEECH IN ISRAEL? MICHELLE ZILIO….SEE NOTE PLEASE
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/01/20/who-were-the-hecklers-at-harpers-knesset-speech/
WOULD JEWISH PARLIAMENTARIANS HECKLE AND WALK OUT OF A SPEECH IN JORDAN, SAUDI ARABIA, YEMEN, IRAQ, EGYPT….ETC. WELL NO BECAUSE THERE IS NOT A SINGLE JEWISH PARLIAMENTARIAN IN ANY MOSLEM/ARAB STATE…..RSK
In the first-ever address by a Canadian leader to the Israeli Knesset Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was heckled by two Arabic-speaking Israeli politicians.
The hecklers were Ahmad Tibi and Talab Abu Arar, members of the the Ra’am-Ta’al-Mada, a small coalition party in Israel. Yelling in Arabic, Tibi and Arar also interrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edlstein and Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog during their introductory speeches for Harper at Israel’s national legislature Monday.
While it is unclear what Tibi and Arar yelled at their fellow Knesset members, the pair started up again during Harper’s address to the legislature. Their anger appeared to be frustrated by Harper’s criticism of anti-Semitic attitudes towards Israel.
“Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state. Think about that. Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that,” said Harper.
Harper’s comments triggered Tibi and Arar, who sat beside each other during the speech. The pair started yelling and waving their hands at the Canadian prime minister from their seats. Television cameras then cut to a shot of a clearly-annoyed Netanyahu. Harper continued with his speech, as people in the legislature hushed Tibi and Arar, who then stormed out of the Knesset together.
The remaining Knesset members then rose in a lengthy standing ovation for Harper. Following the speech, Harper’s director of communications, Jason MacDonald, took to Twitter to highlight the prime minister’s warm welcome at the Knesset, instead of the interruption.
This is not the first time Tibi has spoken out against the state of Israel, in a Canadian context.
Tibi traveled to Ottawa in April 2012, where he gave a lecture at an event commemorating “Land Day,” which recognizes the 1976 expropriation by the Israeli government of tens of thousands of dunams (1000m2)of land for security and settlement purposes. The lecture was hosted by the Ottawa Palestine Solidarity Network.
During that same trip, Tibi called for a boycott of companies and products linked to Israeli towns in the West Bank and other disputed territories. His comments came shortly after the introduction of the 2011 Boycott Law in Israel, which allows civil actions against anyone who encourage boycotts against the country.
Tibi also served as an adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and is currently the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. According to his profile on the Knesset website, Tibi is a medical doctor by training and speaks English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Working alongside Tibi, Arar has also openly opposed Israel’s proposed land deals as part of a peace accord with Palestine.Last week, Tibi and Arar, along with fellow party members, appeared at a demonstration protesting against Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s proposal to swap land and populations with the Palestinian Authority as part of the ongoing peace deal.
Tibi and Arar are 2 of only 12 Arabs in the 120-members Knesset.
In his speech Monday, Harper warned of a new age of anti-Semitism, saying that placing blame on Israel for the Middle East’s problem is anti-semitism. The full text of Harper’s speech can be found here.
With files from the Canadian Press
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