The Israeli delegation at an inter-parliamentary conference in Addis Ababa walked out of the event Tuesday in protest of the presence of Hamas officials in the Palestinian team.
The delegation was lead by Likud’s Silvan Shalom and Kadima’s Shlomo Molla.
Shalom said that he could not sit in a conference with a terror group and that Hamas’s participation was no different to the attendance of Taliban or al-Qaida representatives.
During the conference, the Palestinian and Iranian delegations held up photos of Palestinians killed during the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead and scenes of destruction from the Gaza Strip.
In a related development, Arab, Iranian MPs walk out of meeting during a speech by the delegate from Israel
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[Ma’anImages]
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(Ma’an) — Palestinian, Arab, and Iranian members of parliament walked out of a meeting of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) during a speech by an Israeli politician on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Ahmad Bahar, claimed to have announced his departure from the hall during a speech by the Israeli. Representatives of Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen also walked out of the meeting hall raising pictures of Gazan children killed during Israeli offensive in December and January.
Israeli Knesset member Silvan Shalom responded to the walk-out by denouncing Hamas and its parliament members as “terrorists.” Syria’s representative replied to Shalom’s comments by telling that Hamas is a Palestinian resistance movement elected by the Palestinian people, and accusing Israel of terrorism.
Shalom told Israeli media a different version of events, in which he blocked an Iranian effort to raise a critical discussion of the Israeli war on Gaza during the meeting.