MK Zoabi loses Knesset privileges

The Israeli Knesset voted Tuesday (13 July) to strip of MK Hanin Zoabi of key parliamentary privileges as punishment for her involvement in the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy, in which nine international activists were killed by Israeli naval forces, dozens wounded and hundreds detained and deported.

MK Zuabi is losing privileges granted to Knesset Members: the privilege to exit the country, the privilege to carry a diplomatic passport, and the privilege to have the Knesset cover litigation fees of an MK if he or she is put on trial.

Thirty-four lawmakers voted in favor of stripping Zuabi's privileges and 16 voted against, after a heated debate in which Zuabi accused her fellow lawmakers of punishing her out of vengeance, according to the Israeli news daily Haaretz.

"You are punishing me out of vengeance," Zuabi told fellow Knesset members during the hearing. "When you threaten the Arab MKs and the Arabs' protectors, you threaten democracy and co-existence between Jews and Arabs."

The Knesset’s House Committee first met on 7 June to recommend revoking the privileges of MK Zoabi, following her participation in the aid mission to Gaza, an act some in the Knesset deemed treason.

MK Yariv Levin of the right-wing Zionist party Likud, and chairman of the House Committee, told Zuabi, "You have no place in the Israeli Knesset, you are unworthy of holding an Israeli ID and you embarrass the citizens of Israel, the Knesset, the Arab population and your family.”

Zoabi made history in February 2009, becoming the first Palestinian woman elected to a Palestinian party in the Knesset. Her party is the National Democratic Assembly (al-Tajamu), and before Zoabi, only two other Palestinian women had seats in the Knesset (within Zionist political factions).

Immediately following Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla, Interior Minister Eli Yishai petitioned Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to revoke the citizenship of Zoabi (the Supreme Court previously ruled that an interior minister cannot revoke a person's citizenship without the written authorization of the attorney general).

"MK Zoabi used her immunity as a cloak to protect her from the law, although she was undoubtedly aware of the activists' preparations for the attack against IDF troops," Yishai wrote in his letter to Judge Weinstein. "This is a premeditated act of treason, and there is documented proof of this."

Following Tuesday’s decision, MK Zoabi spoke out saying, "It's not surprising that a country that strips the fundamental rights of its Arab citizens would revoke the privileges of a Knesset member who loyally represents her electorate."

"I have the right and the duty to fight for my rights and my values," she continued, adding that "my positions are often different from those of the Likud, Kadima and most of the MKs. That’s why I don’t represent Kadima, the Labor Party or the Likud, but those who voted for me and in my case I represent the consensus of the Arab MKs."

"You have no freedom of choice with regards to the rules of democracy," Zuabi told fellow MKs. "There are fixed rules that do not change at whim. You do not need to protect democracy, but to protect me for democracy's sake."

Zuabi has said she will seek legal and international aid, according to Haaretz, in order to "rein in the vengeful tendencies of the automatic majority in the Knesset."