Ben-Ari Says Soda Spilled on Goldknopf as She Defended Lazimi From Tadmor

MK Meirav Ben-Ari said on November 12 that soda spilled onto her belongings and a little onto MK Goldknopf when she stood up during a Knesset committee confrontation the previous evening. She said she had been defending MK Naama Lazimi after Likud MK Erez Tadmor called Lazimi a chicken. In her statement, Ben-Ari said she interrupted Tadmor and defended Lazimi, then stood up and spilled the drink. She said she apologized to Goldknopf. “I interrupted him and defended her,” Ben-Ari wrote. She also said she would respond again rather than let that kind of discourse pass without objection. The exchange took place on November 11 in the Arrangements Committee, chaired by Roy Folkman of Yashar. Tadmor had described Lazimi, a Democrats MK, as shouting like a chicken. During the confrontation, Ben-Ari objected to humiliating women, while Folkman called for respectful disagreement. Earlier that day, the Knesset approved the committee’s composition by 63 votes to 50. The committee subsequently approved temporary Finance and Foreign Affairs and Defense committees, each with 17 members. It recommended Liran Avishar Ben-Horin of Together to chair Finance and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu to chair Foreign Affairs and Defense.