The Knesset plenum has approved the first reading of a proposal by Member of Knesset Anat Berko (Likud) to amend the Basic Law: the Knesset so that someone convicted of terrorism cannot be elected to the legislature.
Referring to a former Knesset member caught taking cellular telephones to security prisoners, Berko said, "This is an important and necessary law that will prevent people like Bassel Ghattas from being re-elected. Terror offenses undermine the very existence of the state and harm the well-being of its citizens on an ideological basis. People who have been convicted of terrorism must not be allowed to find their way back to the Knesset."