Lawyer slaps Israeli lawmaker over "German" remark

JERUSALEM, July 11 (Reuters) An Israeli government lawyer apologised today for slapping an Orthodox Jewish lawmaker, saying he lost his temper after the legislator accused him of being ''worse than the Germans'' during the Nazi Holocaust.

The lawyer, Amnon De Hartog, who was in parliament yesterday to discuss state funding for religious schools, said he and legislator Yaakov Cohen were involved in a heated argument in the corridor over the allocations.

''The Germans destroyed the body but you are killing the spirit,'' Cohen told De Hartog, according to a witness quoted by the YNet news Web site. Israeli media reports said Cohen had been pressing the government for more school funds.

While shouting matches and sharp invective are common in debates in Israel's legislature, violence is rare.

''Describing someone as being worse than the Germans is unacceptable, especially in Israel, where survivors of the Holocaust and their children live,'' De Hartog said in an audio clip on the YNet news Web site.

''I never raised my hand to anyone before. I definitely lost control and I apologise for dishonouring lawmaker Cohen and parliament,'' he said.

Cohen has not remarked publicly on what he told the lawyer.

No charges were brought against De Hartog, whose Dutch-born father survived the Nazis' slaughter of six million Jews during World War Two. But a parliamentary committee barred him from the building permanently.

Reuters GT GC1406