UPDATE: At the end of the Knesset hearing Tuesday, MK (Kadima) Yulia Shamalov Berkovtich said that “All human rights activists should be imprisoned and transported to camps we are building,” referring to a facility now being constructed in the south to hold African refugees. She referred to those aiding refugees as “hypocrites” that incite against Jews.

After the controversy in which Likud MK Miri Regev denied (documented) footage of her calling Sudanese a “cancer,” National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari defends use of the term at Knesset special hearing.

On Tuesday morning, the Knesset Committee on Internal Affairs and the Environment held a special session to discuss the African “infiltrator problem.” MKs made comments calling on Africans to be moved to tent encampments, claimed most Africans carry diseases and demanded that they be deported immediately.

Six human rights NGOs, among them the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, announced their refusal to join the Knesset discussion in a letter to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, explaining that they see it as a platform for “wild incitement” against asylum seekers and human rights organizations – and not as a practical means to a solution.

According to reports and tweets from the discussion, MK Danny Danon blamed leftists for the rape of a 15-year old girl committed by Africans. MK Michael Ben-Ari said that MKs Regev and Danon “did good work” (referring to their incendiary comments at last week’s rally that ended in violence), but added that this discussion does not count for anything if the “prime minister doesn’t wake up” (my translation from live broadcast).

Ben-Ari also made a point to defend Regev’s comment that Africans are a cancer, but didn’t actually say the word “cancer,” instead expressed that he would happily reiterate the sentiment were it not to draw outrage from some MKs.

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In an interview with Israeli media following the race riots last Wednesday in south Tel Aviv, Likud MK Miri Regev denied calling Sudanese a “cancer,” claiming she was merely comparing the “phenomenon” of cancer spreading in the body to the “phenomenon” of African asylum seekers entering the country.

A video of MK Regev – who used to serve as the IDF’s spokesperson – denying her statement has gone viral on Facebook in Israel, cutting between her denial of the statement with her explicit assertion in front of a large crowd in south Tel Aviv last week that the Sudanese community here is indeed like a cancer that spreads.

I compared the phenomenon to the

phenomenon of cancer that spreads in the human body.

I did not for a moment say that the Sudanese are a “cancer.”

(Cut to south Tel Aviv last Wednesday):

Friends, I told the Knesset plenum today:

The Sudanese are a cancer in our body!

(Cut back to interview):

I did not for a moment say that the Sudanese are a cancer.

The Sudanese are a cancer in our body!

I did not for a moment say that the Sudanese are a cancer.

The Sudanese are a cancer in our body!

In addition to her hateful comments, MK Miri Regev must also not be informed about the fact that most Africans in Israel are from Eritrea, not Sudan.

Another video against Africans made headlines on Monday, depicting an Israeli youth throwing an egg directly at a Sudanese man and then laughing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM3chr8j-zg [/youtube]

You would think that with all of Israel’s technological expertise and pioneering in the hi-tech industry – including the invention of USB flash drives and instant messaging – combined with its obsessive efforts at Hasbara (Israeli PR), that its public officials would be a little more conscious of the power of social media.