A fiery exchange took place today (Monday) at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during the discussion on the conscription law, which was led by the committee's chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein.
The families of the hostages criticized the chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, and called on him to support the hostage deal. "Agree to the deal!" the families shouted, but Ben-Gvir replied firmly: "This is a reckless deal, this deal will cost us dearly in blood."
During the debate, MK Simon Davidson attacked Ben-Gvir over his military service, saying, "You didn't serve in the army!" Ben-Gvir responded: "The leftists didn't let me! My mother was an officer, my son serves in an elite unit and sacrifices his life for the people of Israel! But this deal is reckless and will bring us disaster."
Before the hostage deal was signed, the then National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to join forces to express strong opposition to the hostage deal and block it altogether.
At the time Ben-Gvir stated: "The deal that is taking shape is a deal of surrender to Hamas. Over the past year, using our political power, we have succeeded in preventing this deal from being implemented, time after time. Since then, however, other parties have been added to the government, who now support the deal, and we are no longer a tipping point. This means that the prime minister will refrain from signing the deal only if the force that stands against it is large enough and does not allow him to do so."
Kikar Hashabbat contributed to this article.
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