ISRAELI KNESSET REVOKES MK’s PRIVILEGES OVER FLOTILLA SUPPORT
Friday, July 16, 2010
Bethlehem - Ma’an/Agencies
Israel’s parliament revoked the privileges of Palestinian Knesset member Haneen Zoabi on Tuesday for her participation in May’s Gaza-bound aid flotilla attempting to break Israel’s blockade.
Following the announcement, Zoabi told Ma’an radio that she was expecting the majority of her peers to vote in favor of invalidating her diplomatic passport and revoking her right to receive funding for legal expenses.
“Israel began to incriminate Arab citizens and accuse them of treason, and what I am facing is part of a collective procedure which started with Azmi Bishara, who was accused of treason and espionage, then Sheikh Raed Salah who was sentenced to five months in jail,” she said.
Bishara was accused of spying for Syria after he visited the state for a funeral. In response, Israel stripped the MK of his privileges and passed the so-called Bishara law, allowing for the revocation of diplomatic privileges for parliament members who visit enemy states.
After 34 MKs voted in favor, a violent brawl was nearly started between Arab and Jewish MKs after the hearing, the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth reported. Zoabi clapped when the Knesset’s decision was announced, and MK Yoel Hasson drew close to her and said “You will soon be a former MK.”
Hasson also joined MK Carmel Shama in answering Arab MKs, who were shouting cries of “fascists” towards the Jewish members.
“It is no wonder that a state which denies a million Arab citizens their basic rights is also revoking the rights of an MK who faithfully represents her voters,” Zoabi said after hearing the decision, the daily reported.
“This is a dangerous precedent for the Arab public, and a hostile message. Anyway the Knesset imposes limits on our parliamentary and public activity through racial legislation, and privileges would not have lessened these limitations.”
The MK added she would appeal to legal and international organizations “in order to curb the vengeful impulses of the automatic majority in the Knesset.”
Zoabi was on board the Mavi Marmara, one of six aid boats heading for Gaza, which was raided by Israeli forces on 31 May, killing nine passengers in international waters.
Shortly after, MK Anastassia Michaeli of Yisrael Beiteinu, handed Zoabi an Iranian passport with her picture, Yedioth Aharonoth reported. She was thereafter removed from the plenum.
Before she left Michaeli told Zoabi, “Most of the Arabs in Israel are smart enough and faithful enough to the state to open their eyes after your incitement. You do not represent them.”
Earlier Tuesday, Zoabi was present at Salah’s final ruling, where she told Ma’an that the five-month conviction for spitting on a border guard was “unjustified punishment.”
“This is an exaggeration, and not an objective ruling … Israel treats Palestinians not as citizens but as enemies. This hostile dealing comes across all institutions, not just politically or in the Knesset, but also the court system, which is supposed to protect the rights of its citizens,” Zoabi said.
HARD talk Haneen Zoabi Part 1.wmv: “ludvan64 | July 15, 2010
Arab Knesset member Haneen Zoabi who has had her diplomatic privileges revoked by parliament has condemned what she calls the civilian ’siege’ of Gaza. She was sanctioned this week for taking part in the Gaza flotilla convoy last month.
Would we get off one hand if we counted the number of Jewish MPs in Arab parliaments? Oh sorry, they haven’t quite got around to the idea of free elections in most of them.
Comment by terry fitz — 19 July, 2010 @ 10:32 am
The paranoid and sectarian Israeli state takes another step towards its own dissolution. The unstoppable struggle of the Palestinians constantly pierces the Zionists’ ridiculous, racist, arrogant sense of entitlement both to massive Western subsidies and other people’s land.
It is time now for the Palestinian people to become the champions of democracy. The Knesset stands more exposed than ever thanks to the heroic efforts of Haneen Zoabi and others and the undefeatable Palestinian nation. Demand an all Palestine Constituent Assembly covering the three Bantustans Israel, the West Bank and Gaza with provision made for representation of the refugees.
This assembly, by marginalising the Zionists, will negotiate the peace including the issues of illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, new jobs and homes for the refugees or compensation if they prefer, economic equality and secular democracy where Muslim and Jew, Palestinian and Jew and Arab and Jew can live together in mutual security. Where the fictitious and divisive so-called `Right to Return’ is no more.
If the current Palestinian leadership will not fight for this but prefers the fiction of the Zionist two-state stitch up then a new leadership should be forged which refuses to recognise Israel but is secular and democratic, believe in economic equality and democracy and features the likes of Zoabi, the best of the Hamas and other fighters in Gaza, the best of the Fatah and other resistance in the west bank and the growing anti-zionist jewish opposition to Israel but which excludes unprincipled compromisers and hopeless sectarians.
America’s funding of Israel is a betrayal of its own constitution and an expression of its own imperialist robber tendencies. It has a duty to economically support a unified democratic secular Palestine until it gets on its feet as well as spring for compensation for the victims of the Zionist aggression they have sponsored for so long.
Comment by Unite Palestine — 19 July, 2010 @ 10:46 am
“…then a new leadership should be forged which refuses to recognise Israel but is secular and democratic, believe in economic equality and democracy…”
Yes. And while we’re at it, can I ask for wings, and a magic cup full of the most delicious wine that never runs dry?
Comment by Jonny Mac — 19 July, 2010 @ 10:56 am
#3 It is the only kind of leadership that can defeat the zinoists and their system of theft and murder. I think your irony and satire are misplaced especially as you are a racist yourself who thinks black people are naturally violent.
#1 Terry Fitz uses history (or his version of it) to justify the zionists crime. If so an so killed or kills why can’t Israel, he asks.
There is something Rotten in the state of Israel. Yes, that is right. Johnny Rotten is to play Israel with his band PiL and he has rationalised the brutalisation of the Palestinians to justify his fat pay check. See Jews Sans Frontieres for the story.
Comment by Unite Palestine — 19 July, 2010 @ 11:19 am
#1,
‘Oh sorry, they haven’t quite got around to the idea of free elections in most of them.’
…and when they do hold free elections in Gaza the Israeli state, which was created by force and not by free elections, does not respect the result…
Comment by stuart — 19 July, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
Another unusual action for a ‘democratic’ state to take.
Comment by SteveH — 19 July, 2010 @ 12:16 pm
Israeli ministers voted to strip MK Haneen Zouabi of her parliamentary privileges for participating on the Mavi Marmara, which saw nine people killed when Israel attacked the flotilla to Gaza in international waters. The motion, carried by a 34-16 majority in a special committee, is the first of its kind in Knesset (Israeli parliament) history. The decision has been condemned by prominent academics and representatives of civil rights groups and is the latest of a series of serious attacks on the democratic rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Haneen Zouabi will be speaking at a PSC/MEMO seminar on 28 July, alongside other Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament. It will be a unique opportunity to discuss what is happening inside Israel, and the work that Palestinian Knesset members are carrying out to represent their electorate, despite the overwhelming challenges they face.
To register for the meeting in parliament please email events@memonitor.org.uk
Haneen Zoabi interview in Palestine Monitor >>
Comment by David Hillman — 19 July, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
Terry Fitz is so ignorant - but I don’t think he wants to find out the truth.
Comment by David Hillman — 19 July, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
Iran has a Jewish MP Maurice Motammed.
I see Fitz is using classic whataboutery to distract from his support fort the racist Israeli state. No one is saying that Arab countries are paragons of virtue are we?
Comment by Ecolefty — 19 July, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
9 - ‘we’re not saying that the arab countries are paragons of virtue are we’ - er … yes you are! Constantly.
Comment by joseph — 19 July, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
9 - No one is saying that Arab countries are paragons of virtue are we?
I hope not, Ecolefty, no. But if the likes of Galloway didn’t shill for the Iranian regime and take its money to appear on its propoganda arm Press TV, I think there would be less temptation to indulge in such whataboutery. And it’s worth pointing out that while you frequently see Israel getting a (often well deserved) kicking here, you never see ‘Arab countries’ attacked in a similar way. Andy had over 50 posts just on the flotilla; I don’t know how many he’s had on the foul Saudi regime, which is in many ways significantly more abhorrent than the Israeli one, but I doubt if it reaches double figures.
Unite Palestine, you are David Ellis and I claim my five pounds.
Comment by Jonny Mac — 19 July, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
#11
Iran isn’t an Arab country.
Comment by pedant — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
The point of libertarians is to rattle cages abd that is what I have done here. Don’t forget children, Thames Magistrates Court tommorrow morning when I will be committed for trial accused of Racially Agravated Harrassment of those well known Livingstone financed Jew haters Operation Black Vote.
I am pleading not guilty and will, after tomorrow when we get a Crown Court, be applying for subpeonas against the following. Livigstone, Lee Jasper, Karen Chouhan, she of the ” honey glazing(sic)as well as Brian Paddick who will be giving evidence about Jasper and Livingstone’s connections with yardie gangsters in Notting Hill. Should be interesting, be there or be square.
Comment by terry fitz — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
Saudi Arabia is a noxious regime, but it isn’t occupying anybody else’s land and hasn’t attacked its neighbours recently.
Comment by robert — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:10 pm
Jonny Mac up to his old diverting tactics again. “Look over there not over here.” The joke is that Saudi Arabia is a US watchdog just like Israel.
Comment by Ray — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:10 pm
#11
How can anyone on this list take Jonny Mac seriously when he continues to spout such bullshit. He claims to be a critic of Israel and its brutal treatment of the Palestinians, yet spends his entire time trying to divert attention away from those crimes.
He’s so utterly ignorant of the subjects on which he pontificates that he describes Iran as an Arab country.
What a moron.
Comment by Danny — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:18 pm
#10- Care to provide some examples of this?
#11 The overwhelming majority of Iranians aren’t Arabs. There is a minority Arab population that Saddam claimed to be “liberating” when he invaded. Iran is not a member of the Arab League. Arabs speak Arabic, a semitic language. Iranians speak Farsi.
It’s like calling Spain a Scandinavian country.
Comment by Evan — 19 July, 2010 @ 2:18 pm
I didn’t say Iran was an Arab country. I know it’s not.
Comment by Jonny Mac — 19 July, 2010 @ 3:36 pm
#18
You were the one who made the link between ‘Arab countries’ and Press TV.
Comment by pedant — 19 July, 2010 @ 3:53 pm
On democracy -
All international observers agreed that the elections in Palestine (in which Hamas won on a nationalist and anticorruption ticket) were the acme of democracy except in parts of Jerusalem where the Israeli authorities obstructed the process.
As for Israeli democracy see –Haneen Zoabi, Knesset member
More:programme information
Watch now (30 minutes)
Available since Friday with 12 months left.
Stephen Sackur interviews Haneen Zoabi. –
on Hardtalk.
I remember listening to a talk during Oxford’s “Israel Apartheid” week entitled “Take your democracy and give me back my land” which argued that to build a state both democratic and Jewish entailed by necessity the cruel and continuing ethnic cleansing of none-Jews. Now they want to take away both land and democracy from the “Arabs”.
Who now will want to pledge alliegance to the Jewish state?
Comment by David Hillman — 19 July, 2010 @ 4:32 pm
#18 Of course you didn’t.
Comment by Evan — 19 July, 2010 @ 4:56 pm
Here is the url for the hard talk interview in which she talks beautifully, challenging the Zionist assumptions of the BBC interviewer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t44jq/HARDtalk_Haneen_Zoabi_Knesset_member/
Comment by David Hillman — 19 July, 2010 @ 7:10 pm
WAAAAAAH! Why can’t I be allowed to betry my country? It’s not fair! All I did was sell out to the mad mullahs and now they’re calling me a traitor! It’s just so UNFAIR!!! WAAAAH!
Comment by anonymous — 20 July, 2010 @ 8:21 am
A democratic one state solution is the only solution.
Until there is a united Palestinian leadership capable of uniting the whole of the Palestinian people from within ‘Israel’ itself, to the occupied territories, Gaza under siege and throughout the Arab world,throughout the diaspora Worlwide, in demanding this then there will be no change.
In turn, only such a clear, simple and straightforward demand has the capacity of uniting the massive latent power of the Arab street and workers throughout the Middle East and the ever growing Palestine global solidarity movement in supporting boycott, divestment and implementing full comprehensive sanctions.
Such a movement has to be demanding and fighting for the fullscale dismantlemnt of the present illegitimate and brutal racist apartheid state of Israel, which as we should all know by now, is backed to the hilt by imperialism (as was Apartheid South Africa) and imperialist backed reactionary Arab regimes and dictatorships then the Palestinian people, while standing frim are on a hiding to nothing and will succeed is gaining absolutely nothing other than greater despair and desperation.
Only the full scale dismantlement of the architecture of the fundamentally racist apartheid state of Israel can usher in a transparent and democratic one state solution for Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in the historic land of Palestine.
The present folly of an utterly useless and corrupt,repressive neo liberal Palestinian Authority backed , armed and supported by the US, Britain and Israel against the repressive Hamas govermnment in Gaza is leading no where other than further division and ultimate sell out.
Such nn imaginary two state solution is exactly that and has no purchase on the ground as the Israelis continue to occupy, steal and divide Palestinian land by the hour, demolish Palestinan houses and continue to create immovable concrete facts on the ground which render such a farcical and unacceptable mythical and illusory solution as totally unviable and basically why the fuck should the Palestinian people accept anything less then a democratic one state solution ??
Comment by Donkey — 20 July, 2010 @ 1:09 pm
Zionists often enjoy a bit of whataboutery regarding Arab states and other serial human rights abusers but Israel’s existence is predicated on its on-going human rights abuses. This isn’t the case with any other state. Israel has a triad of impairments: colonial settlement, ethnic cleansing and racist laws. Again, all these things are on-going and they do not apply to other states though of course many states have these things in their history. Israel has these things in its past, present and future.
Comment by levi9909 — 22 July, 2010 @ 2:39 am