Right-Wing Israeli Lawmaker Mocks Wheelchair-Bound Colleague As ‘Half A Human’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Likud Party lawmaker Oren Hazan is under fire for calling a disabled fellow lawmaker “half a human” during a Knesset debate.
Ilan Gilon of the liberal opposition Meretz Party was criticizing Culture Minister Miri Regev during a heated debate Monday on a bill that would withhold state funding to cultural organizations that show insufficient “loyalty” to the state. Hazan leapt to Regev’s defense and the lawmakers exchanged words.
After Gilon called Hazan “the Golem of Prague” — an anthropomorphic being made of clay and given life — Hazan threatened the disabled lawmaker saying: “If you weren’t half a human, I would respond to you.”
Gilon had polio as a child and frequently uses a wheelchair.
Hazan later apologized for the taunt, saying he was not taking a jab at the lawmaker’s disability.
“My comments referred to his barbaric behavior, and not anything else. If my statements were understood otherwise, it was not my intention. Please accept my apology,” Hazan said.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
