Mehdi Hasan

Matan Kahana is about to become Speaker of Israel's Knesset. Gadi Eisenkot's bloc picked him this week. This is what he has said about Arabs and Palestinians" 1) In June 2022 he was a deputy minister. He told high school students in Efrat (a settlement): "If there were a button you could press that would make all the Arabs here disappear... I would press that button." 2) In the same talk he called the Palestinian account of 1948 "nonsense." His apology was for an "unsuccessful choice of words." He never took back the wish. 3) A month before that, he wrote about a dream in which "all the Arabs decided one morning to emigrate to Switzerland." 4) In July 2021 he backed the law that bars Palestinian spouses of Israelis from citizenship. He said whoever votes against it "wants to flood Israel with thousands of Palestinians." 4) In December 2020 he wrote that "it is madness to legislate the equality law." 5) During the May 2021 unrest in Lod he wrote that the police should "protect the Jews from Arab rioters" instead of separating the sides. 6) In February 2021 he called the Arab MKs Heba Yazbak, Sami Abu Shehadeh and Mansour Abbas "supporters of terror" who have "no place in the Knesset." 7) In 2025, asked about the bid to expel MK Ayman Odeh, he said: "We must not build on Arab seats." On election night, October 28, 2026, he repeated that there would be no government that relies on Arab parties. 8) In September 2022 he said Ben-Gvir "loves the State of Israel." In the same breath he called the Arab party Balad "full-on terror supporters." 9) In February 2025 Trump proposed moving Gaza's population out. A radio host called it forced transfer. Kahana answered that it was "voluntary emigration" and said "we need to embrace this solution." 10) The day after, he called humanitarian aid to Gaza "aid to murderers." This is the man the bloc that ran against Netanyahu chose to preside over Israel's parliament, including over its Arab members. He is an unrepentant racist and will lead the Knesset despite that.