Jerusalem at night in CIA image
A political firestorm the likes of which has not been seen in a long time has erupted in Israel after an organization that monitors Middle East media reports documented that three Arab members of the legislative assembly, the Knesset, had visited with the families of a number of terrorists, including “one who killed three Israelis.”
The documentation, done by officials with the Palestinian Median Watch, then was released to government officials, sparking an invitation for the group to present the findings to lawmakers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the three lawmakers involved – Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi and Basel Ghattas, all of the Balad party – “do not deserve to be in the Knesset.”
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, the prime minister was seeking the opinion of Attorney General Avihai Mandelbilt.
And Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein were looking at what steps could be taken, such as complaints to the Knesset Ethics Committee.
Edelstein told the Post, “It cannot be that when innocent civilians are being slaughtered on the streets of Israel, MKs go to comfort (the terrorists’ families) and with comparable audacity, even bring their requests to the government. I see this as seriously harming the Knesset and the state of Israel and hope that this will enter the hearts and minds of Supreme Court judges next time they rule on an appeal of the disqualification of unworthy candidates for the Knesset.”
That court previously has reversed other decisions to ban members of the Balad party from the Knesset.
The reference to requests was that the terrorists’ families wanted the government to release their bodies for burial, while the government has said that can happen when there are assurances the funerals will not be used to incite further.
The legislature there has the authority to sanction offenders with suspensions from voting, docking their salaries and more.
The Post reported that if Edelstein finds the offenses to be criminal, “He may ask the Knesset House Committee to vote to remove their immunity, so they can be put on trial.”
PMW said it reported to officials the visits by the three with the families of terrorists, and lawmakers then invited Itamar Marcus, of the PMW, to brief them on the issue.
He revealed the original documentation about the meeting and well as additional documentation of Arab MPs defending the visits, PMW said.
According to the PMW report, the Balad party’s response was that Netanyahu “and his choir have lost their senses in their call to banish the Balad MPs from parliament. However, we know that when the trumpets of Fascism incite against us, it means that we are protecting human values.”
PMW had found that the lawmakers met with members of the families of 10 terrorists, including the father of Baha Alian. He was accused, along with an accomplice, of killing three people on a bus just last October.
Then was found a Facebook post, the Post said, featuring Alian’s father, Muhammad, discussing the visit by lawmakers.
The social media post called the attacker a “martyr” in Arabic.
The Post cited a Palestinian news agency in reporting the meeting was in east Jerusalem. It opened with a moment of silence and reading from the Quran, after which Muahmmad Alian welcomed the lawmakers.
The lawmakers, Marcus noted, “are sending a message to Israeli citizens that they identify with murderers of Israelis. This is a serious thing that happened, that they actually publicized it, as I said, on their Facebook page.”
He said the meeting was “so close to the murder, the blood still [is] damp.”
According to a Post report reproduced on the PMW website, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said, “I call on the Arab public: You are better than them. Reject them. Condemn them. We will not have unity among us if our public representatives meet with our murderers.”
And Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in the report the lawmakers “foremost harm their own voters, because they do not represent or promote anything other than supporting terrorism and activity against the state of Israel.”
Nissan Slomiansky, chairman of the Knesset Constitution committee, slammed the lawmakers as “those who behave immorally and harm the state of Israel” and said they should not be in the lawmaking body.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/visiting-families-of-terrorists-sparks-political-firestorm/
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