Arab Members of Knesset last week met with family members of terrorists slain during the perpetration of terror attacks. The meeting attended by MKs Hanin Zoabi, Dr. Ahmed Tibi, Basel Ghattas, and Jamal Zahalka was held at an undisclosed location and they observed a minute of silence in memory of the terrorists as well. This resulted in a number of complaints filed with the Knesset Ethics Committee.

The committee has announced that MKs Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas are suspended from plenum sessions for two months and MK Jamal Zahalka for only one month. While they may not participate in committee and plenum sessions, their right to vote in the plenum and one committees has not been suspended.

Their meeting has also resulted in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu moving ahead with a bill that would permit 90 MKs to vote out any colleague whom they feel has acted inappropriately. One of the opponents of the bill is MK (Bayit Yehudi) Betzalel Smotrich, who feels the bill is intended to get rid of traitorous Arab legislators but he feels down the road it will be used against chareidim too, hence his opposition.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)