Knesset member Jamal Zahalka, who heads the Knesset faction of Balad (the Hebrew acronym for the National Democratic Assembly party), wrote his doctoral thesis on the effects of the active ingredient of hashish on the human body. But even when the debate about legalizing hashish recently became bon ton in Israeli politics and media, Zahalka stayed out of the fray. It was actually Knesset member Moshe Feiglin of the extreme right wing who became the star of the party.
Not surprisingly, in the few cases that Zahalka managed to break into prime-time television it was with a passionate, photogenic and particularly loud outburst.