Suzman was subject to anti-semitic and misogynist abuse by Nationalist MPs in Parliament and out. Frequent comments were made to her in Parliament such as "We don't like your screeching Jewish voice" or "Go back to Israel!". One nationalist MP, Piet Koornhof, said to her in Parliament: "If I should come home one evening and my wife should rant and rave the way the hon. member for Houghton did this afternoon, there would be only one of two things that one could do to her... I think she deserves a good hiding". In May 1965 P.W. Botha (then Minister of Coloured Affairs) remarked: ‘The Honourable Member for Houghton... is in the habit of chattering continually. If my wife chattered like that Honourable Member, I would know what to do with her. There is nothing that works on my nerves more than a woman who continually interrupts me. She is like water dripping on a tin roof.’ In 1986, she had the following exchange with the then State President Botha: "Helen Suzman: Stupid! P.W. Botha: Woman!"