Palestinian MP expelled from Knesset for six months

Sixty-eight Israeli lawmakers voted to expel Haneen Zoabi on Wednesday following a ruling by the Knesset Ethics Committee on July 29.

Back in June, Zoabi refused to condemn the abduction of three Israeli settlers, which Tel Aviv blamed on Palestinians. She has also been blamed for calls on Palestinians to hold anti-Israel protests.

Zoabi called the Knesset’s decision "unprecedented, vengeful, and disproportionate," saying those who backed it were "raising their hands in favor of political persecution."

Zoabi told the parliament that no MP has ever been expelled from the Knesset in an address that was interrupted by the lawmakers with one shouting, "The things that you did have never been done."

Israeli forces killed several Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others, including Hamas members and lawmakers, as part of the search for the three settlers, whom Israel claimed went missing in the occupied West Bank on June 12.

On June 30, Israel confirmed that the three Israeli settlers were dead and their bodies were buried in a field near the village of Halhul north of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank.

A day after the funeral of the three teenagers, Israeli settlers abducted and burned alive 17-year-old Palestinian Mohamed Abu Khdeir in the West Bank in retaliation for the incident.

One of the main reasons that Israel launched its latest deadly war on the Gaza Strip was the regime’s accusations against the Hamas resistance movement over the kidnapping issue.

HK