Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday spoke harshly against MKs from the Joint Arab List who had submitted a no-confidence motion against the government, under the heading, “The Government Promotes War Crimes-Based Policy.”
“Every day about 400 people are killed in the Middle East, in the Arab countries, and close to 1,000 are wounded,” Liberman told the plenum, and added, “In Yemen, 160 people were being killed every day, does anyone care? Look at how many terror attacks there are every day, is anyone talking about war crimes? It’s those who sit here who are war criminals – the entire Joint Arab List are war criminals.”
In response, some Joint Arab List members left the plenum.
Referring to the political storm he had raised with his remarks on Sunday, calling to boycott Israeli-Arab businesses in the densely Arab Wadi Ara area in central Israel, Liberman said, “Has anyone seen that Israel’s Independence Day is being celebrated in Wadi Ara? I’ve seen them with the flags of the Palestinian Authority, with Hezbollah flags, with pictures of Nasrallah, but in Wadi Ara you won’t see Israeli flags.”
“Are they really Israeli citizens?” the Defense Minister wondered. “Then why do I have to be the sucker who pays their Social Security? We are a bunch of suckers, giving them 14 billion shekel ($4 billion), to these ‘citizens’ who attended the funeral of the three murderers [of two Border Policemen on the Temple Mount last summer] in Umm al-Fahm. As far as I’m concerned, they are not legitimate citizens.”
Liberman added that the members of the Joint Arab List “exploit the weaknesses and advantages of the democratic state in order to destroy us from within.”
MK Hanin Zoabi presented the no-confidence motion on behalf of the Joint Arab List, and said: “The government is a criminal government, the prime minister must be brought to trial at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, because he is a war criminal.”
All five no-confidence motions submitted by opposition parties Monday were rejected by the plenum.
