The appeal filed against the Knesset Ethics Committee to reverse a six-month ban from participation in the Knesset plenum was rejected on Wednesday 5 Marcheshvan. MK (Balad) Hanin Zoabi brought her appeal to fellow MKs in the hope of having the punishment overturned. The Ethics Committee banished her in response to numerous statements supporting Hamas, refusing to label Hamas a terrorist organization and finally, for equating the IDF with ISIS.

At the end of the stormy debate 68 MKs voted to oust Zoabi and only 16 voted to overturn the committee’s ruling to banish her. Those voting in her favor included the Arab parties, the left-wing Meretz Party and MK Amram Mitzne from The Movement party.

In her attempt to persuade her colleagues, Zoabi said “It may not be easy for you to look at me and listen to me hear but it is not easy for me either knowing that you regard my people as ‘the enemy’…”

Her impassioned statements were insufficient however and she is now prohibited from taking part in plenum session for the coming six months.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)