In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister and Knesset Speaker file complaint against Arab MKs who met with family members of terrorists.
By Ido Ben Porat
In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Thursday evening announced they would file a personal complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee against the Arab MKs who met with family members of terrorists who murdered Israelis.
The three MKs in question are Jamal Zahalka, Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas – the three representatives of the Balad party in the Joint List.
Edelstein said that the MKs’ actions constitute incitement and encouragement to murder.
“It is inconceivable that while innocent civilians are being slaughtered in the streets of Israel, Knesset members pay condolence visits and, in their audaciousness, even dare to bring to the Israeli government requests by the murderers’ families,” he said.
“I consider it serious harm to the Israeli Knesset and the State of Israel and hope that these things will permeate into the hearts and the wisdom of the High Court judges the next time they discuss petitions against the disqualification of candidates who do not deserve to be in the Knesset,” added Edelstein.
Netanyahu said that Knesset members who go to console families of terrorists who murdered Israelis are unfit to serve in the Israeli Knesset.
Edelstein and Netanyahu’s complaint to the Ethics Committee follows one filed earlier on Thursday by MKs Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) and Amir Ohana (Likud).
The complaint states that “the issue is not a matter of left or right, but rather a matter of terrible acts that harm the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.”
“I am not content with condemning the visit to families of the terrorists. Sympathetic coverage in Arabic media shows an increase in activities that harm Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. And so I filed a complaint to members of the Ethics Committee against the Balad faction of the Joint List,” said Svetlova.
Ohana accused MKs Zahalka, Zoabi and Ghattas of being open supporters of terrorism in the Israeli Knesset.
“There is no more question about which side they chose. …The only benefit of their being in the Knesset is that the people of Israel better understand the views of the people who elected them to the Knesset – because they were not elected by Norwegians.”
Ohana continued, “The problem is not the law – which unequivocally determines that (a supporter of terror is one who) explicitly or implicitly supports an armed struggle against Israel. The problem is in the interpretation of the Supreme Court, which until now repeatedly overturns decisions of the Election Committee and allows them to join the Knesset.”
