Jerusalem – EU Parliament President Heckled During Speech In Knesset

Jerusalem – European Parliament President Martin Schulz must apologize for lying in the Knesset, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday.

Bennett and the entire Bayit Yehudi faction walked out in the middle of Schulz’s speech, with several MKs yelling “Palestinians are liars” and “shame.”

“When he said Palestinians get 17 liters of water for every 70 Israelis get, it was a total lie. It’s preposterous,” Bennett told The Jerusalem Post after the Bayit Yehudi walk-out.

In response to Schulz’s allegations, Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor simply said, “The figures are wrong.”

According to Water Authority data, Palestinians received 100,000 cubic meters of water per person per year in 2006, while Israelis receive 170,000 liters of water per person per year the same year. Although updated concrete figures are not available for today, Schor said that the gap has narrowed even further, with Palestinians receiving more than 110,000 cubic meters of water per person per year, and Israelis receiving less than they did in 2006.

Looking at Schulz’s figures of 17 liters per Palestinian person for every 70 liters per Israeli person, his data would imply that Israelis are each receiving about 4.12 times more water than are Palestinians. An examination of the Water Authority’s data, however, indicates that Israelis are each receiving about 1.7 times more water than are Palestinians, a number that has decreased further today, according to the authority.

“All the ministers were perplexed. I stayed quiet at first, but then he criticized the Israeli blockade on Gaza and said it caused pain to the Gazans,” Bennett said.

“Did he forget that we expelled 8,000 Jews from Gaza? This week I worked on helping the evacuees. Did he forget that [Gazans] shoot thousands of missiles at us? And then he criticizes us about the very place we vacated?” Bennett asked.

The minister demanded that Schulz “take back his lies,” and called for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to make the same demand.

“Our national honor as the State of Israel isn’t mine or the ministers’. It belongs to all of the people of Israel,” he stated. “I won’t sit in the Knesset and hear a European, certainly not a German, saying such things.”

The Bayit Yehudi leader said that when he noticed no one else was protesting, he instructed his faction to walk out quietly, though some only listened to the first part.

According to Bennett, the Bayit Yehudi were “the only ones who stood up for our national honor.”

“I thought Schulz would express the EU’s regular criticism about Israel in the West Bank. He started out speaking nicely about the Holocaust, he showed a lot of empathy. He spoke about the importance of peace, and I get it, he’s not in the Bayit Yehudi,” Bennett recounted. “We can accept criticism, but we cannot live with lies.”

The Bayit Yehudi leader pointed out that Schulz quoted Edmund Burke as saying “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

“He could criticize us, even sharply, but to tell lies and expect me to be quiet? It won’t happen,” Bennett stated.

The exact statements Schulz made, which caused the uproar, were about the amount of water Palestinians receive and criticism of the military blockade of Gaza.

“We all know the blockade is a reaction to attacks on your civilian population, but it led to a difficult situation. The results of the blockade are exploited by extremists, so perhaps it is counterproductive to security,” he said.

Still, Schulz took the Bayit Yehudi’s interruptions with good humor, saying to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein that the Knesset is quiet compared to the European Parliament and that he would have been disappointed if there wasn’t a reaction to his speech.

Immediately after Schulz departed, Culture Minister Limor Livnat took the stand to say his words were “a vulgar lie.”

“Schulz told lies in German, and it’s unfortunate someone can speak German in this house, but it is our responsibility to stand up against it,” Pensioners’ Affairs Minister Uri Orbach said. “The generation of Schulz’s parents and the generation of the Arab MKs’ parents collaborated to destroy the Jews.”

Schulz addressed the Knesset in German on Wednesday, discussing the Nazi past of his native country and Israel’s ability to rise from the ashes of the Holocaust.

Schulz discussed the “honor” of speaking at the Knesset, the “heart of Israeli democracy” and a “symbol of hope for the Jewish people.”

He said that, although he was born in 1955, years after the Holocaust, “I bear responsibility which stems from the mass murder perpetrated in the name of my Nation, each German bears it.”

Schultz said that it is his duty as a German to honor the oath “never again.”

The EU Parliament speaker said that Europe works to combat anti-Semitism and ultra-nationalism. “We created an immune system against hatred and wars. We defend the right of Israel to exist and for the Jewish people to live in security and peace.”

“Israel is the hope of a people to live freely in its homeland. It is hope turned reality, a dream of humanity,” he added.

Schultz also discussed the situation in the region, stating that the Arab Spring had created upheaval. He said that the EU “would always stand by those who commit to democracy and human rights.”

He stated that a nuclear-armed Iran was not only a threat to Israel, but a threat to the entire world, that would “never be permitted to have nuclear weapons.”

Schultz trumpeted a negotiated two-state solution, saying that West Bank settlement construction is a “hurdle to a peaceful solution.”

He quoted former prime minister Ariel Sharon, saying “it is not possible to have a Jewish democratic state and control the whole land of Israel.”

Schultz said that there was no European boycott of Israel, adding that there must be cooperation between the entities.

Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post