Arab Israeli lawmaker suspended from Knesset over language

Jan 17, 2012, 13:45 GMT

Jerusalem - An Arab Israeli lawmaker was suspended from parliament Tuesday for using profane language.

Ahmed Tibi became the second lawmaker to be suspended from the Knesset within one week.

Tibi, of the four-seat United Arab List, in a 60-second speech last Tuesday mocked ultra-nationalist lawmaker Anastasia Michaeli.

Michaeli had thrown a cup of water in the face of another Arab-Israeli political rival, Ghaled Majadele of the centre-left Labour Party.

Tibi said her 'plumbing' had been broken, and, in a play on words, he used the phrase; 'kos amok' - which in Hebrew means 'glass of madness,' but in Arabic is a profanity.

Michaeli was suspended last week for one month. Tibi was suspended Tuesday for one week.

'The Ethics Committee wishes to express its dismay at the remarks of lawmaker Tibib in the Knesset (plenum), which included low language and insults with sexual, humiliating and chauvinist connotations,' the committee said in its decision, a copy of which was sent to dpa.

Michaeli, of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu faction, herself has drawn complaints before.

She was reprimanded after she tried physically to interrupt a plenum speech by a different Arab-Israeli legislator in 2010.