Knesset Opens With Shouts, Oaths
Israel’s 12th Parliament opened Monday on a fractious note as 15 leftist legislators refused to be sworn in by a lawmaker whose party calls for expelling Arabs from Israel.
Yair Sprintzak, 77, of the right-wing Moledet party, administered the oaths under a law that makes the oldest member of the Knesset, or Parliament, its acting Speaker until a permanent Speaker is chosen.
Before swearing in the new legislators, Sprintzak delivered a highly political speech in which he called for annexation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
More than a dozen left-wing legislators, shouting words of protest, got up from their seats and walked to the back of the hall. They returned when Sprintzak called the names of each Knesset member, but 15 members then refused to take the required oath.
“We will not be sworn in by (someone) who represents for us the complete opposite of law, morality and justice, Jewish and human,” said Ran Cohen of the Citizens’ Rights Movement.
The 15 later agreed to take the oath so they could take part in the voting for a Knesset Speaker, which resulted in the election of Dov Shilansky, a member of the Likud Party.
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