Knesset suspends Tibi for offending Michaeli

Knesset Ethics Committee decided, Tuesday to suspend the Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi (UAL – Taal) for one week, effective from next Sunday, where Tibi would be banned from attending Knesset sessions and would only be allowed to vote at the General Authority of the Knesset. The decision to suspend Tibi followed his slamming of fellow parliamentarian Anastassia Michaeli in a short poem he read during a Knesset session, saying “Anastasia, who has a problem with her plumbing / who grew there in the garbage pile of Yisrael Beiteinu [Israel our Home], / Or should we say, Russia our Home, / From which the road was short for the bill called muezzin, now a joint Bibi- Anastasia venture / As well as her unwise use of water, during a dry spell in which every drop counts / For, Israel may be drying but it is far from being ashamed.” The ethics committee had previously suspended Michaeli (Yisraeli Beiteinu) from the Knesset for 30 days, following her pouring a cup of water on an other Knesset member Majadle during a heated argument in the Knesset Education Committee.