Gaza, 15 July-2014(AFP): An Israeli lawmaker has called for the government and armed forces to cut off power to hospitals in Gaza, to kill off Palestinians.
“The blood of a dialysis patient in Gaza is not redder than the blood of our IDF [Israeli army] soldiers who will, God forbid, need to enter [Gaza],” said Moshe Feiglin, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Wednesday.
“Therefore I call on the prime minister who we all support in this difficult hour, before we send the IDF into Gaza, we should simply shut down their electricity,” he added.
During the televised parliamentary session where Feiglin made these calls for war crimes – heard clearly in the video below – he had already expelled three Palestinian members for criticizing Israel’s full-scale assault of Gaza which has claimed more than 250 Palestinian lives since Monday (around a third of them children), and injured over 2,000.
Let’s Cut Off Power to Gaza Hospitals : Live video of Israeli Lawmaker
Feiglin, a member of Israeli prime minister’s ruling Likud party, has also recently pushed for legislation to replace occupied Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque with a Jewish “Third Temple.” A provocation to the entire Muslim world.
During the same session, another member of parliament stated that Israeli missiles were good for Palestinians in Gaza. These comments are in tune with an atmosphere of intense incitement that has included lawmaker Ayelet Shaked taking to Facebook to call for genocide of the Palestinian people.
Israel often claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East.
However, whilst the nearly 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote and be elected to the Knesset, the video below, edited and subtitled by Boycott from Within activist Ronnie Barkan, exposes the strict limits Israel places on freedom of expression.
When lawmaker Ibrahim Sarsour of the United Arab List party condemned Israel’s attack on Gaza, Feiglin orders guards to forcibly remove him from the podium and expel him.
“Those who refer to Israeli soldiers as murderers will not stay here another second,” Feiglin states.
Shortly thereafter, Ahmed Tibi of the Arab Movement for Change raises his voice in condemnation of the incitement by Israeli leaders and rabbis that led to the kidnap and murder of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khudair on 2nd July. As he reads aloud the names of Palestinian children killed in the bombing of Gaza – he is heckled throughout.
“The IDF is committing war crimes,” Tibi charges.
Feiglin calls Tibi “the representative for the martyrs” and declares, “there are no war crimes.”
Knesset member Masud Ghanayim takes to his feet to challenge this ban on dissenting Knesset members.
“You have massacred, you have murdered! And in Gaza, up to this moment, you murder,” he tells the parliament.
“And the army is an army of murderers, and you may kick me off the stage,” he says.
He is also removed.
Just incase anyone was hoping that Feiglin may have repented after considering the days events, he chose instead to brag about the expulsions on his Facebook page, later that day.
“Earlier today in the Knesset, I expelled 3 Arab MKs [Knesset members] from the plenum for calling our IDF soldiers ‘murderers,’” he wrote. “As long as I am in charge of the deliberations, nobody will get away with such lies.”