Arab-Israeli lawmakers suspended for meeting families of killed Palestinians

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at them in the Knesset, saying they had crossed every acceptable boundary in a democratic country. On Sunday, one of the three legislators, Haneen Zoabi, received a suspended six-month sentence and a fine of nearly $800 for calling Arab Israeli policemen traitors during an incident outside a courtroom.

Basel Ghattas, Jamal Zahalka and Zoabi attended a meeting initiated by a Palestinian committee seeking to retrieve the bodies of attackers killed by Israeli security forces, Balad said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to punish the politicians, while the opposition Zionist Union said the Tuesday meeting “gave a helping hand to terror”.

The meeting began with a moment of silence for what the members of Knesset described on their official Facebook page as shaheeds (شهيد), or martyrs.

The lawmakers met Thursday with the families of three Palestinian attackers whose bodies at the time had not been returned to their families, a punitive measure used by Israel.

The suspected attack comes amid five months of near-daily Palestinian assaults, mainly stabbings, against Israeli civilians and security personnel that have killed 27 Israelis.

They are part of the Joint List, an alliance of Arab-backed parties. “We condemn the incitement against party members [as they] perform their duty to help families to return the bodies of their children, which the Israeli authorities hold contrary to global laws and values”.

“We will do everything to find who did this and bring them to justice but I expect all those, here and around the world, who justifiably condemn any desecration of a mosque…to equally cry out about this heinous act”, he said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting.

It is widely expected to receive preliminary approval in the Knesset late on Monday and then be sent to a committee for final drafting before a second and third vote at a separate parliamentary session. Almost 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

Netanyahu added that he is requesting that legal action be taken against MKs Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas.

“I would like to examine new and reinforced legislative changes to ensure that anyone who acts in this direction – will not serve in the Israeli Knesset”. They are often seen as identifying more with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza than with Israel. Palestinians say it stems from frustration at decades of occupation.

Israel is holding the bodies of some attackers and has handed others over to relatives, sometimes long after they were killed.

Also Monday, 90 Knesset members voted in favor of advancing legislation that would allow lawmakers to be suspended or expelled for engaging in “behavior inappropriate for their position as a member of the Knesset”.