Impeachment process launched against Arab Knesset member

Israeli-Arab MK Hanin Zoabi called for “millions of Palestinians to march on Jerusalem.” She is now facing possible impeachment. 

By: TPS and World Israel News Staff

Members of the Yisrael Beteinu political party on Monday initiated procedures to impeach Member of Knesset (MK) Hanin Zoabi of the Joint Arab List following her call for “millions of Palestinians to march on Jerusalem.”

At a press conference Friday at the United Nations (UN) in New York, Zoabi claimed that Israeli soldiers who fired on Palestinian protesters storming the Gaza border fence that day and since the previous Friday were acting unlawfully.

“Israel is not defending itself as it is claiming,” she charged. “The occupation and the siege are not an act of self-defense, but rather one of terrorism.”

“Israel has turned from a racist country to a fascist one,” she asserted, calling on “millions of Palestinians to march on Jerusalem.”

MK Oded Forer, who initiated the move, tweeted that “after expressing support for Hamas’ actions in the past and even called on the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria to join them, it has come time to put a boundary and to determine that the MKs who support Israel’s enemies will not serve in Israel’s Kneset.”

Zoabi ‘pours oil on the fire’

“In a situation so potentially explosive, especially in the south (on the Gaza border), rather than calm tempers, (Zoabi) deliberately pours oil on the fire,” Forer told IDF Radio.

The move to oust Zoabi from parliament under the terms of a 2016 law would require the initial support of 70 MKs, including some members of the Opposition, and would eventually require a special three-fourths majority, or 90 MKs, to remove her from office.

Zoabi, a known advocate against Israel, has used her immunity as an MK to transgress the law, voice support of terrorism and act against Israel inside the country as well as abroad. She has been repeatedly suspended from participating in Knesset debates due to her incendiary rhetoric. Last month, she called IDF soldiers “murderers”; in 2014, she justified Hamas’s kidnapping of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frankel and Eyal Yifrach.

‘Harming the security of the state with her words’

Similarly, on Sunday, MK Oren Hazan lodged a formal complaint against Zoabi with the Knesset’s Ethics Committee. He demanded that she receive the maximum punishment possible for not only “ridiculing the Knesset, but also seriously harming the security of the state with her words.”

“Now it’s clear my accusations that (certain Arab MKs) support terrorism are true,” he declared.

Hazan also threatened to turn to the High Court of Justice if nothing is done about it, as he has complained several times to the Committee about her incendiary behavior.

Israeli ArabsIsraeli politicsKnessetMarch of ReturnOded ForerZoabi