Ramallah: A prominent Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament, Haneen Zoabi, has asked that country’s High Court to rule against a six month ban preventing her from speaking in the chamber, terming it a violation of her right to free speech, the Israeli media has reported.
The ban against the Balad Member of the Knesset was brought down in July by the parliament’s ethics committee when it ruled on complaints made by other parliamentarians, including the Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein.The half-year ban was the highest the committee could award and barred Zoabi from all parliamentary activity except voting.
In the Zoabi petition to the court, the parliamentarian drew attention to Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s conclusion that her behaviour had not been criminal. Zoabi used this conclusion as proof that her utterances had been within the limits of free speech for a parliamentarian.
Zoabi wrote on her facebook page that she will not retreat at all from her positions and that her views have remained consistent.
The parliamentarian stressed that the criminal who violates Palestinian dignity, humanity and disputed ownership should be the one to draw back. “On our part, our humanity, dignity and duty imply that we should intensify our struggle against Israeli violence, racism and brutality,” she said.
“We should highlight and make it clear to the world that the Palestinian resistance does not have anything to do with terrorism, but the Palestinian resistance is a symbol and the tool to liberty and independence.”
Haneen Zoabi also stated, “Israel is not qualified enough to define legitimacy for us.”
Zoabi has been criticized in Israel for many years for being an outspoken critic of Israeli attitudes, policies and actions against Palestinians. A participant in the 2010 flotilla to Gaza, in recent months she has attracted condemnation for what some Israeli politicians have termed incitement, including her claim that the people who abducted the three Israeli colonists who were later discovered murdered “are not terrorists.”
In an online opinion article about the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Zoabi also stated, “The Israelis want a short campaign, the civilian population cannot stomach a prolonged conflict and there are many surprises not only on the military level but also with regard to the number and range of the rockets. We must declare popular resistance instead of security coordination, besiege ‘Israel’ instead of negotiating with it and unite instead of splinter.”
Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein submitted the main complaint against Zoabi to the ethics committee. In his complaint, Edelstein wrote, “I am of the belief that Zoabi long ago crossed every line regarding the conduct expected of a Knesset member. The large number of complaints that I have received demonstrates that this is not a ‘regular’ case of harsh or outrageous expression as occurs from time to time in the Knesset, but rather continuing and provocative conduct.”
