Yisrael Beytenu, Likud MKs petition to ban Zoabi from running in election

Zoabi responds: "No one is doing me or any Arab MK a favor by us being in the Knesset; it is our right in our homeland.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Balad MK Haneen Zoabi at the Knesset. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Balad MK Haneen Zoabi at the Knesset.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) supports terrorism and should not be allowed in the next Knesset, MKs in Yisrael Beytenu and the Likud wrote in petitions to the Central Elections Committee on Thursday.
The petitions came the day after the Joint Arab List submitted its list, which includes Zoabi, to the committee.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and MK Alex Miller, Yisrael Beytenu’s representative on the Central Elections Committee, signed the party’s 10-page petition, which it sent with another 50 pages of appendices full of articles quoting Zoabi.
“MK Zoabi’s support [of] armed conflict against the State of Israel and her negation of the State of Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state are a clear violation of Basic Law: Knesset,” the party wrote.
According to Yisrael Beytenu, the petition has support from the Likud, Bayit Yehudi and Shas.
“I’m glad that all the factions in the nationalist camp agree that MK Zoabi should be banned, since time after time she incites against the IDF and Israel and expresses support for Israel’s greatest enemies,” Miller said.
The Likud’s representative to the Central Elections Committee, MK Yariv Levin, also submitted a petition to ban Zoabi, saying that she turned the Knesset into a terrorist outpost and took advantage of her rights as an MK and of government resources to encourage boycotts and terrorism against Israel.
Shas’s representative to the committee, Yehuda Avidan, also expressed support for banning the Balad MK from running for Knesset on Wednesday.
When the Joint Arab List submitted its candidacy to the panel, he noted that Zoabi was not present at the time, and said it must be because they knew she would be banned.
Zoabi responded to the petitions that “no one is doing me or any Arab MK a favor by us being in the Knesset; it is our right in our homeland. Racism is what needs to be illegal, while strengthening democracy for equal citizenship for all.”
As for the content of the petitions, she said she did not want to respond to “MKs from parties plagued with corruption that will probably disappear from the political map after the election.”
The Central Elections Committee banned Balad from running for the last Knesset following petitions from the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, but the Supreme Court overturned the decision.


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