Following a podium speech by an Arab MK who called the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat “father of our [Palestinian] nation,” MK Oren Hazan (Likud) pointed out an embarrassing inconsistency: if Yasser Arafat is the father of the “Palestinian nation,” it must mean there wasn’t such a nation before him.
Following which MK Hazan suggested in no uncertain way there was no such thing as a “Palestinian nation,” only a cluster of terrorists using the term as a unifying name.
The session was chaired by MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) who was turning his back on Hazan throughout his short elocution. Other Arab MKs at one point got up and left the plenum in protest. Hazan berated them, among other things asking one of the male MKs which of his wives he was running away to.
Hazan reminded MK Tibi – without mentioning him by name to deny him the right to respond – that he has yet to repent for serving as Arafat’s personal adviser. But the chairman kept his back turned.