Arab MPs in “Israel” condemn the “racist campaign” against them

by Tony Auth
Middle East Monitor, May 1, 2010

Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, have reiterated the right of Palestinian citizens to communicate with the outside world, especially in the Middle East. The MPs’ statement came in response to moves in the Knesset to strip some Arab MPs of their parliamentary immunity for taking part in a Palestinian delegation to Libya.

The president of the “Assembly” parliamentary coalition, Jamal Zahalka MP, is confident that attempts by the Israeli government to put barriers between the outside world and the Palestinians who live in Israel “will not work”. Mr. Zahalka added, “We will break through all barriers and ghettos which are built by the Israeli government, and will not be deterred from communicating with the Arab world by right-wing attacks and the government’s decisions.”

Pointing out that the Israeli parliament is to hold a special meeting to discuss the possibility of stripping parliamentary immunity from those who visited Libya, Mr. Zahalka said that the Arab members of the Knesset will boycott such moves. He described such sessions as “racist parties” and likened them to a military court. “We are not guilty of any crime,” he said. “We have merely exercised our right and duty. This racially motivated campaign is based on the Israeli belief that our visit to Libya poses a threat to the state.”

The President of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, Mohamed Baraka MP, called the parliamentary move “close to Nazi practices”.

“Neither Israel nor the Knesset nor the right-wing MPs can formulate a new identity or history for the Arab minority in Israel,” said Hanin El-Zoghbi MP. The relationship between Israel’s Arab minority and the rest of the Arab world has to be respected by Israel, she added.

Mohamed Zidane, the Chairman of the High Committee for Follow up on the Palestinians’ Rights in the Territories Occupied in 1948, called Israel’s campaign against the Arab MPs’ visit to Libya “a desperate campaign of racism which seeks to destroy the national, cultural and human rights of the Palestinian people.”
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