The suggestion was made by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, but the sweeping order to members of the governing coalition to boycott members of the Joint List, a unified slate of predominantly Arab parties, was given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Liberman, who makes no secret of his political agenda advocating the removal of Arab legislators from the Knesset, claimed the boycott decision is a tit for tat following the Joint List’s decision to boycott the September state funeral for former President Shimon Peres.
At an Oct. 9 meeting of the coalition party leaders, Liberman said, “Members of the Joint List had proven there was no longer any point in talking to them or even arguing with them, and that a decision has to be made mandating a boycott of all their Knesset appearances and speeches.” Netanyahu was not far behind. If there’s a move afoot to boycott Arab lawmakers, he can’t let Liberman get all the credit for the move from the right-wing constituency that shares Liberman’s views about the Joint List. Liberman was the one who spearheaded the move to raise the election threshold in the previous Knesset. His intention was to make sure the Arab parties would not have enough votes to make it into the Knesset, but this actually ended up uniting the small Arab parties into one faction, which together garnered 13 Knesset seats, largely passing the threshold. Now Netanyahu, too, is seeking ways to delegitimize these Knesset members.
