Israeli Minister calls for Arab MP's immunity to be revoked for her "treason"

In an escalation of Israel’s official aggression against the Palestinians who stayed on after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and their leaders, Israel’s Interior Minister has submitted a request to the Attorney General for the parliamentary immunity of Haneen Zoubi, MP, to be revoked. Eli Yishai, who is the leader of the Shas religious fundamentalist party, called Ms. Zoubi’s participation in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla a “betrayal of the state”. His request has been supported by a number of other parties.

Yishai’s request comes a day after physical and verbal attacks by extreme right-wing parliamentarians against Zoubi during her speech in the Knesset on Wednesday evening. The attacks have been so bad that the Knesset (Israeli parliament) authorities have authorised additional security for the Arab MP.

“Under the protection of parliamentary immunity,” wrote Yishai, “Zoubi stood by a group of terrorists who wanted to harm [sic] the IDF soldiers.” According to Yishai, Haneen Zoubi’s presence on board the convoy meant that she would have been “absolutely aware of the preparation by terrorists [sic] against the soldiers”. This, believes the minister, “is a betrayal of the State of Israel with malice aforethought, and that is evidenced by documentation of the events in the ship”.

Yishai called upon the Attorney General to examine the legal dimensions of reprisals against any parliamentarian in the Knesset who may cooperate with people who “want to harm” the country. He added that he “cannot accept the exploitation of parliamentary immunity for an act of treason, collaborating with the enemy, and endangering the lives of soldiers and citizens of the state, as Zoubi did.”

The Knesset’s Conduct Committee will consider another charge against Haneen Zoubi on Monday, because she took part in a delegation of Arab MPs to Libya which is “an enemy state”.

Source: Dar Al Hayat – Asa’ad Telhami

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