MK Orly Levy Abekasis was asked to leave the Finance Committee room by order of the chairman, and lashed out at the usher who was sent to remove her from the discussion.
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""Get your hands off me. You're rude. I'd rather her touch me than not touch me," Levy-Abekasis shouted at the orderly.
The usher burst into tears and MK Yinon Azoulay said to the MK: "Why are you attacking Knesset employees?""
Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy condemned MK Levi Abekasis' behavior, saying: "The verbal violence being used by members of the opposition has crossed all boundaries. Knesset employees will not be the punching bags of MKs who have lost all restraint. Every minute that passes without a functioning ethics committee only drags this house into deeper abysses.".
MK Shirley Pinto from her right called the usher to calm her down. "I just called the lovely Marina to calm her down. No Knesset member has any right to yell at a Knesset employee, they are Knesset employees, not Knesset slaves.".
Knesset Director General Gil Segal spoke with the usher Marina Metz, and told her that he denounced the treatment she received from MK Orly Levy Abekasis during the debate: "This is an exceptional event that should not be passed over for the agenda. Knesset employees are not anyone's punching bag, and any attempt to push them, even in a storm of emotions, into the political cauldron through violent discourse is fundamentally wrong.
""The dedicated Knesset employees do their job faithfully for the members of Knesset - around the clock, and the humiliating treatment that Knesset employee Marina Metz received must not be repeated in the future. The entire Knesset, including its employees and elected officials, appreciates and supports the restraint and composure that Marina demonstrated at the event and supports her.".
Orly Levy responded in a post she published:
As a veteran Knesset member after many years in the Knesset, in which I waged substantive battles in committees and in the plenary, in which I fought for my opinions and positions, and sometimes such heated discussions ended with my removal from committees or the plenary. I have never experienced violent behavior that invaded my privacy as I felt tonight in the Finance Committee hearing.
I have great respect for the Knesset ushers and highly appreciate their clearly not easy job, but there is a way to remove Knesset members without acting violently. There is no other definition of strong pressure on the ribs other than violence and bullying.
The cynical use that the chairmen of the coalition committees make of the opposition members by encouraging and interpreting the authority given to them as chairmen first and foremost for cynical and political exploitation and harm to the members of Knesset by conveying that there is a green light for the organizers to act with all their might against the elected representatives.
This in itself is extremely serious, but no less serious is the unilateral announcement by the Knesset Speaker that instead of conducting an investigation as expected of him, and out of purely political considerations, he is allowing and orchestrating the harm to a Knesset member instead of doing his job and working to dictate a code of conduct for ushers towards elected officials.
Unfortunately, the chairman chose, and not for the first time, to pass judgment. After all, if he had only bothered to investigate the incident and not jumped on it as a way to get away with it, he would have seen that not only had I agreed to leave, but that I had even warned the hostess that it was hurting me and that she should not press my ribs. Moreover, I offered to leave independently.
What is surprising to me is that no one, not the Knesset Speaker, not the media, not the MKs, not even the Knesset Director General, bothered to clarify the incident with me or at least hear another version.
These days, when madness is celebrated, and it seems that everything is judged and covered based on position, I am not surprised that the media in the orchestra of the wise men from the coalition are exploiting the situation to create a reality that is not true to the truth. But I expected the Speaker of the Knesset to behave with statesmanship like the Speaker of the Knesset, and not like MK Mickey Levy, whom we know from the not-so-distant past.
I am sorry if the orderly was offended, and may I express my great appreciation to all Knesset employees, male and female.
