Following a Knesset vote on Monday night approving the Electricity Law in its first reading, a controversial bill providing electricity to illegal Bedouin homes, Religious Zionist party chairman Betzalel Smotrich spoke about the two recent terror attacks (prior to the one that occurred on Wednesday morning) that took place in the past week, asking Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas to condemn them.
Not only did Abbas refuse to condemn the attacks, he walked out of the plenum in response.
“I want to mention the fact that Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas is here in the plenum and I don’t remember hearing any condemnation from him on the terror attack that happened by Sha’ar Shechem on Shabbos,” Smotrich said. “I also don’t remember hearing him say anything about the terror attack at the Te’enim checkpoint.”
“Mansour Abbas, are you listening?” Smotrich said, addressing him directly.
“MK Abbas, do you hear?” he repeated. “You know that there was a serious terror attack by Sha’ar Shechem in Jerusalem? I haven’t heard a word from you about it. Do you want to condemn this terrible incident? Support the Border Police officers who guard Jerusalem? You’re a senior member of the government and your silence is deafening – again and again. We’re experiencing a difficult wave of terror attacks. And you’re a leader in the Arab sector in the Islamic Movement. And the leadership decides the direction.”
“Why are you quiet? You’re a leader!”
“You’re running away? You’re not just fleeing from responsibility. You’re supporting terror and encouraging it.”
“Mansour Abbas’ thundering silence cries out support for terror,” Smotrich said after Abbas left the plenum. “The silence of his coalition partners is no less thundering. You should be ashamed.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Well, that’s no surprise.
Betzalel, have you heard a word from Bennett, Gantz and all those others? Silence is often interpreted as a sign of acquiescence: dare we think that you also condone terror as does your coalition partner, arab Mansour!? Should we think otherwise?
Even Iyvette Liberman seems to be quicker on the trigger against Chareidim than he is to condemn the terror attacks.
Abbas is quiet because he’ll be dead if he says anything against terror and he certainly will he be voted in again. So why single him our when him out when the majority of Jewish politicians are not only silent about terrorism, many support “inquiries” when police and soldiers defend themselves and civilians.