Hazan Removed From Plenum For Yelling ‘Present!’ As Holocaust Names Read

“He continues to surprise us with his, shall we say, unique interpretation of what is and is not proper in this setting.”

Jerusalem, May 5 – A Member of Knesset known for courting controversy has provoked critics again, this time by mocking the legislature’s Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony.

MK Oren Hazan of the Likud Party responded to the names of victims being read aloud in the plenum this morning with a cry of “Present!” as if the speaker were taking attendance. A furor erupted and Hazan was immediately ejected from the room, leaving behind a tumult that did not subside for several minutes. Once order was restored, the reading of names continued.

As part of the “Every victim has a name” theme, various government and public figures took turns reading the names of, and sometimes other information about, many of the nearly six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, mostly during the Second World War. While Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon was reading off the names of Jews killed in concentration camps in German-occupied Libya, Hazan decided to express that the proceedings reminded him of roll call from his grade-school days.

“I just wanted to show what I was thinking and feeling,” he explained outside the plenum. “It’s what I do. I have to be me. Does anyone genuinely find this stuff exciting?”

Other legislators were not sympathetic. “Unfortunately we’ve come to expect rudeness from the likes of Mr. Hazan,” intoned an exasperated Ahmad Tibi, filling in in his capacity as Deputy Speaker while Speaker Yuli Edelstein is in Poland for the March of the Living. “But he continues to surprise us with his, shall we say, unique interpretation of what is and is not proper in this setting.” Tibi added that while Hazan’s behavior was clearly unbecoming, no procedural or legal mechanism exists to penalize him for it in any formal way.

“I would just as soon forget the Holocaust, too,” admitted MK Jamal Zahalka. “But that outburst was simply inappropriate. Oren is a rookie at this, so perhaps he doesn’t understand you can’t just offend people’s sensibilities like that,” said the lawmaker, who participated in the Mavi Marmara flotilla to defy Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip.

Hazan has become notorious for his ill-mannered interactions with other lawmakers, staff, and journalists, especially women. Since the beginning of the current Knesset term last year, reports have dogged him of involvement in drugs and prostitution in a casino in Bulgaria in which he was a partner. After repeated denials, this week Hazan admitted he had a financial interest in the casino. He has mocked the disabled, and has been accused of other violations, but has not been charged. Barring unforeseen scandal of a criminal nature, he is likely to remain an MK as long as the current Knesset persists, which is at most until 2019.