A few weeks after the current Knesset was sworn in in March 2015, Meretz Party members recited at the plenum a selection of testimonies by soldiers, collected by the group Breaking the Silence, which was documenting testimonies from soldiers on Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) conduct in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In these testimonies, the soldiers described several wrongdoings committed against the Palestinian population in Gaza during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. The atmosphere heated up quickly. A group of Knesset members from the right, headed by Oren Hazan of Likud and Sharon Gal of Yisrael Beitenu, lashed out with a fury, using incendiary language against their fellow Knesset members from Meretz.
Gal, a journalist, was recruited by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman right before the election, and deemed his party’s rising new star. During that particular session, however, Gal disparaged the left relentlessly, as if he was possessed. He called the Meretz Knesset members “collaborators” and chastised them with comments like, “You’re criminals and should be ashamed of yourselves!” After three calls to order, he was removed from the chamber. He was still fuming.
