[News] Witchhunt for an Israeli MP

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook06082010.html
June 8, 2010


Officials Try to Strip Haneen Zoubi of Citizenship


Witchhunt for an Israeli MP

By JONATHAN COOK

Nazareth.

An Israeli parliamentary committee recommended stripping an Arab MP 
of her privileges yesterday in a move to prepare the ground for 
putting her on trial for participating last week in the Gaza-bound 
aid flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos.

Haneen Zoubi, who has become a national hate figure since challenging 
Israel's account of the confrontation, said yesterday she was facing 
"a witch-hunt".

The interior minister, Eli Yishai, has submitted a request for her 
citizenship to be revoked, and a bill -- labelled the "Zoubi Law" -- 
is being considered that would allow a serving MP to be expelled for 
"inciting" against the state.

Ms Zoubi has been provided with a bodyguard after receiving a spate 
of death threats. A popular Facebook page in Hebrew is calling for 
her execution and an online petition for her expulsion from the 
parliament has attracted tens of thousands of supporters.

Last week, in unprecedented scenes as she tried to address 
parliament, Ms Zoubi was heckled into silence by Jewish legislators 
shouting out "terrorist" and "traitor". Guards only narrowly 
prevented a far-right parliamentarian from attacking her.

Yesterday's hearing of the parliament's house committee was 
originally <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745327540/counterpunchmaga>
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intended to consider revoking the immunity of six Arab MPs, including 
Ms Zoubi, who travelled to Libya in April. All the Arab MPs boycotted 
the meeting.

However, the committee chairman, Yariv Levin, of Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, switched the focus to Ms Zoubi's 
involvement in the flotilla.

Legal advisers said the MP was still being investigated for 
attempting to enter a closed military area and violence against the 
commandos. After she disembarked from the Mavi Marmara in Ashdod last 
week, Ms Zoubi said she had been questioned by police about 
possessing a weapon.

The committee approved by a majority of 7-1 stripping her of 
parliamentary privileges that take away her diplomatic passport, 
reportedly to prevent her fleeing the country, and withdraw help with 
litigation fees. Parliament must approve the decision.

Mr Levin accused Ms Zoubi of betraying the country and said she must 
be put on trial. "What Zoubi did crossed the line and even in a 
democracy there must be red lines. Whoever sails to Hamas is a 
supporter of terror," he said.

Ms Zoubi responded: "They conducted a kangaroo court against me. They 
have called on the public to harm me."

An editorial in the liberal Haaretz newspaper warned yesterday that 
an atmosphere of "dangerous incitement" was developing against 
Israel's Palestinian minority, a fifth of the population. Two other 
Arab MPs, Ahmed Tibi and Taleb al Sana, revealed that they too had 
received death threats.

In addition to the removal of Ms Zoubi's privileges, she is also 
facing the revocation of her citizenship. The measure has been used 
only twice before in Israel's history -- both times against 
Palestinian citizens accused of terrorism.

Last week, Mr Yishai wrote to the attorney general asking for the 
go-ahead, saying Ms Zoubi had "headed a group of terrorists" and was 
"undoubtedly aware of the activists' preparations for the attack 
against IDF troops. This is a premeditated act of treason."

Orna Kohn, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal centre for the country's 
Palestinian minority, said Mr Yishai's move was "uncharted legal 
territory" that could leave Ms Zoubi stateless, in violation of 
international law. "There is simply no precedent for revoking the 
citizenship of an MP," she said.

After Ms Zoubi's release last week, she said she had seen three 
passengers shot in the head by soldiers, and two more left to bleed 
to death. According to autopsies conducted in Turkey, five of the 
nine dead passengers were shot in the head, and many of the lethal 
shots were fired from close range.

During her address to the parliament last week, Ms Zoubi called for 
an international investigation and demanded to know why Israel had 
not published photographs and video footage it confiscated from 
passengers that related to the nine dead and dozens of wounded.

After the session, she said: "It was so hostile in the chamber that, 
had MPs been allowed to carry guns, I am sure someone would have shot me."

Israel has been swept by rightwing demonstrations in support of the 
raid on the flotilla over the past few days.

A Hebrew Facebook page "Execute MP Haneen Zoubi" features a cartoon 
image of the MP with crosshairs on her forehead as the figure waves a 
Palestinian flag with a bloody Star of David at its centre.

Ms Zoubi said she had been surprised to learn that the armed 
bodyguard -- normally reserved for government ministers and the head 
of state -- was supposed to remain with her even inside the 
parliament chamber. "What does that say about the threat posed by my 
fellow MPs?"

Four other leaders of Israel's Palestinian community who were on the 
ships are being investigated by police. After the mass release of 
detainees last week, they were freed to house arrest but are banned 
from leaving the country.

At his remand hearing, Sheik Raed Salah, a leader of Israel's Islamic 
Movement, said of the flotilla episode: "The soldiers tried to kill 
me. They fired in the direction of someone else they thought was me."

Rumours circulating widely that Sheikh Salah had been killed in the 
commando raid eight days ago were not denied by Israeli officials and 
only ended when his family identified that a body brought to an 
Israeli hospital was not his.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. 
His latest books are 
"<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745327540/counterpunchmaga>Israel 
and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the 
Middle East" (Pluto Press) and 
"<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1848130317/counterpunchmaga>Disappearing 
Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair" (Zed Books). His 
website is <http://www.jkcook.net>www.jkcook.net.




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