Last update - 00:00 13/12/2007
Itching powder delivered to MKs sparks Knesset investigation
By Guy Leshem, Haaretz Correspondent
After 120 Knesset members received packets of magic store itching powder, Knesset director general Avi Balashnikov Wednesday instructed Knesset Guard commander Avi Shadar to initiate an investigation into their distribution.
The 120 envelopes were brought into the Knesset under the guise of promotional material from the Israel Psoriasis Association. The organization's media advisers, Ronen Zur and Motti Morel, chose a particularly creative way to persuade decision makers to include various treatments for the condition in national healthcare coverage. They assembled kits containing itching powder, of the type sold in magic stores, and informational materials from the association. The idea was to give the legislators a hint of what people with psoriasis experience.
The PR pair also found a creative way to smuggle in the white powder in order to foil Knesset security. They asked a woman who works for a lobbying organization to use her Knesset pass to bring PR materials into the building for them. Their excuse was they could not come to the Knesset to distribute the envelopes themselves that day. The employee, who did not suspect Zur and Morel of any wrongdoing, asked a parliamentary aide to help her out. He agreed, and brought the materials into the Knesset through the main gate. The powder was not discovered by the X-ray machines used by security personnel, and the envelopes made their way into the MKs mailboxes.
"The cynicism of Zur and Morel's behavior represents the essence of the unacceptable link between the legitimate promotion of interests in the legislature and public relations agencies that carry out populistic tricks in order to persuade decision makers," sources in the Knesset said Wednesday. "Before today, we have seen varied methods of persuasion and the application of pressure on MKs, but we never had the introduction of a dangerous material into the Knesset in this matter."
An anarchist organization once brought a whipped-cream pie into the Knesset, which an activist threw at the face of then Knesset speaker Reuben Rivlin.
Sources close to Zur and Morel tried to minimize the significance of yesterday's incident. "It was just a standard PR gimmick. The first line of the explanatory material said that the envelope also contained itching powder of the kind that is sold in toy stores. If there was any failure it was that of Knesset security. There was no danger involved because the powder was wrapped in plastic."
Zur refused to comment. Shadar is to submit a report on the investigation to Balashnikov within a week. One option under consideration is to permanently bar those involved in the incident from the Knesset.