Fresh from NGO bill win, lawmakers toughen MK suspension proposal
Ahead of committee vote Tuesday on final draft, controversial bill amended to allow for dismissal of Knesset members for entire term
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
A controversial bill that would give lawmakers the ability to vote to suspend their colleagues has been dramatically beefed up, with the outcome of such a vote now upgraded to dismissal of the Knesset member until the end of the term rather than a mooted temporary suspension.
Fresh off a coalition victory with a controversial NGO transparency law, which passed late Monday night, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Tuesday announced the changes to the draft proposal, which was set to be approved in a committee vote later Tuesday before it goes to the full Knesset for final approval.
Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) announced Tuesday that after consultations with coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) and other lawmakers, he decided to change the bill to impeachment rather than suspension.
Some 70 lawmakers would be required to support the motion in its initial stages to get the process started, 10 of whom must be from the opposition. If 90 Knesset members vote to boot a lawmaker from parliament, the politician would be removed from office, but may appeal to the High Court of Justice. Knesset members would not be allowed to trigger the vote during an election season.
Opposition members were quick to express their displeasure.
“The impeachment bill that the coalition is advancing is a bullet between the eyes of Israeli democracy,” said opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Tuesday.
The coalition wants to “dismantle what was built here and build a new state that is racist, violent, conflicted, and torn apart,” Herzog continued. “A wild west in which every [Jewish Home MK Betzalel] Smotrich is a sheriff with inexhaustible powers.”
His fellow party member Zouheir Bahloul said the proposed law was “racist and generates ethnic cleansing.”
Meanwhile, Joint (Arab) List MK Youssef Jabareen met with Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, in Budapest on the bill. Jabareen argued the law harms Israel’s Arab citizens and urged her to intervene, a statement from his party said. Izsák-Ndiaye replied that she would study the proposal and would consider taking it up with the Israeli government, the statement said.
The suspension bill, as the measure has come to be known, was originally proposed after three Arab MKs paid a condolence visit to the families of Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis, and the three observed a moment of silence, which some said was tantamount to showing support for terror.
The three lawmakers were suspended on February 8 by the Knesset Ethics Committee — Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas for four months, and Jamal Zahalka for two.
The bill has seen some internal coalition opposition, as well as by President Reuven Rivlin, who warned in February that the power to punish lawmakers should not be in the hands of fellow Knesset members. Joint (Arab) List chairman Ayman Odeh has threatened to quit the Knesset if the bill passes into law.
Firebrand MK Zoabi, who is seen as the main target of the bill, raised hackles in the Knesset several weeks ago when she branded Israeli soldiers “murderers” and demanded they apologize for the raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010, in which she participated. The ensuing bedlam in the Knesset nearly devolved into blows and Knesset members angrily approached the podium and were restrained by security detail.
Sixty Knesset members subsequently filed an ethics complaint against Zoabi, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned to Israel’s top law enforcement official in a bid to oust her from the Knesset.
“I spoke with the attorney general [Avichai Mandelblit] this evening in order to explore ways to expel Hanin Zoabi from the Knesset,” Netanyahu said in a statement two weeks ago.
In his statement, Netanyahu said, “in her actions and her lies, [Zoabi] has crossed all red lines and there is no place for her in the Knesset.”
