Lawmakers to consider expelling phone-smuggling MK

Lawmakers are set to consider expelling Arab Joint List MK Basel Ghattas from the Knesset.

The Knesset House Committee is set to debate the unprecedented move in a meeting Thursday after 71 MKs signed a call to remove Ghattas, who has already been distanced from all parliamentary activities except for plenum votes after he was discovered to have allegedly smuggled cellphones to convicted Palestinian terrorists in Ketziot Prison.

According to police, Ghattas met last month with Walid Daka, a Palestinian prisoner serving a 37-year sentence for the 1984 abduction and murder of 19-year-old IDF soldier Moshe Tamam. The MK also met with Basel Ben Sulieman Bezre, who is serving a 15-year sentence on a terror conviction.

Footage appearing to show MK Basel Ghattas handing over a package to Palestinian prisoner Walid Daka (Screen capture: Channel 2)

Under a new law, an MK can only be expelled if at least 70 MKs call for it in writing, the House Committee approves it with a three-quarters vote in favor, and 90 of the parliament’s 120 MKs then vote for it in a formal plenum vote.

The call to start the process was initiated by Likud lawmaker Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin.