Israel approves bill enabling ousting of inciting lawmakers

Lawmakers drafted the bill after three Arab fellow members of Israel’s parliament visited the families of Palestinian terrorists who had attacked and murdered Israelis, and after several of them voiced support for Hezbollah.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Tuesday approved a bill allowing it to impeach a legislator who incites against the state or calls for an armed struggle against it by a three-quarters majority vote of 90 of the 120 Members of Knesset.

The vote passed at a 62-47 vote.

Lawmakers drafted the bill after three Arab lawmakers visited the families of Palestinian terrorists who had attacked and murdered Israelis and after several of them voiced support for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and condemned a resolution by Arab Gulf states to officially declare it a terror organization.

“Members of Knesset who go to console the families of terrorists who murdered Israelis do not deserve to be in the Israeli Knesset,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in February after the provocative visit.

MK Nissan Slomiansky, who sponsored the bill, stated “there are limits to democracy.”

“We cannot allow someone who supports terror and meets with those who kill Jews to sit beside us in the Knesset. There is no parliament in the world where such a thing would be allowed to happen. Even democracy has its red lines,” he explained

Legislators could oust a colleague for “inciting to racism,” ”supporting armed struggle, by an enemy state or terrorist organization, against Israel,” or “negating the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The bill was authored primarily with Arab MK Hanin Zoabi in mind, a known advocate against Israel who 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.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

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