Far-right MK lashes bill to allow suspending serving lawmakers

Politicians from the far right and far left attacked a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance legislation that would allow a majority of 90 Knesset members to suspend colleagues.

The initiative was floated in the cabinet in response to a controversial meeting last week between a group of Arab Knesset members and family members of East Jerusalem residents killed while attacking Israelis.

Bezalel Smotrich, a hawkish member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, said Monday that while a “root canal” treatment was required in dealings with Israel’s Arabs, the proposed legislation was “bad.”

“Tomorrow morning, someone might decide that Michal Rozin [of the left-wing Meretz party] is too extreme and that she has no place in the Knesset; then someone might decide that I am too extreme and that I have no place in the Knesset,” he told Army Radio.

Dov Khenin, a far-left Jewish lawmaker from the Arab-dominated Joint List, said in a statement that the move was part of a “comprehensive attack on democracy” and an attempt to use the meeting of MKs with the Palestinian families as “an excuse to continue a campaign of labeling Israeli Arabs as internal enemies.”

The three MKs, all members of the Balad party — like Khenin’s Hadash, a constituent element of the Joint List — have maintained that the sole goal of their meeting with the families of the attackers, some of whom were terrorists who killed Israeli civilians, was to advance the release of their bodies, which have been held by Israeli authorities.

Following the visit, Netanyahu asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to explore the possibility of legislation that would allow Knesset members to suspend other lawmakers for “inappropriate behavior.” If passed, the legislation would require a 90-MK majority to boot a lawmaker, after consultations with coalition parties. A similar measure is in place to oust the president or Knesset speaker under similar circumstances.

The bill would target lawmakers accused of “unseemly behavior,” Netanyahu said. He did not elaborate on what the parameters of such behavior would include. According to reports, the decision as to the length of the suspension would be made by the Knesset Ethics Committee.

“A member of Knesset who goes to comfort families of terrorist murderers of Israelis is not worthy of serving in Israel’s Knesset,” he said in a statement, alluding to reports that during the meeting, the Israeli Arab lawmakers stood in silence in memory of Palestinian dead.

Arab lawmakers, meanwhile, boycotted discussions about the legislation as well as a session on the subject Monday in the Knesset Ethics Committee.

The debate, they said in a statement, was a “performance by the populist band of inciters that is trying all of the methods to delegitimize Arab Knesset members and restrict the scope of their political action.”

On Sunday, the head of the Joint List condemned the bill, and defended the Arab MKs who met with the families of Palestinian attackers, while also condemning all attacks on innocent people.

“The prime minister continues with his methods of deceit and incitement,” MK Ayman Odeh said in a statement. “According to Netanyahu, he should rule like a caesar, and the Knesset should be run by the tyranny of the majority.”

Odeh said his faction, which until that point had not commented on the visit, “fiercely opposes Israel’s body trafficking,” referring to the Israeli government policy of withholding the bodies of Palestinian attackers.

“Netanyahu and his ministers know full well that this was the essence of the meeting in East Jerusalem,” he continued. “It’s a basic human issue. A man who dies, no matter how terrible his crime was, must be brought to burial. This does not contradict our moral and fundamental stance to condemn all attacks on innocents.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.