Yehuda Weinstein
Yehuda WeinsteinFlash 90

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein submitted on Monday a legal opinion to the Central Elections Committee, in which he stated that he believes that the request to disqualify Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running in the next election should be rejected.

While Weinstein said on the one hand that there is "an accumlation of substantial and disturbing evidence which borders on forbidden behavior" regarding Zoabi, he nevertheless stated that the requests to disqualify her "do not indicate a sufficiently critical mass of evidence in the case of Zoabi." Therefore, he said, MK Zoabi should not be disqualified from running for the Knesset, at least according to his opinion.

A video already released shows Zoabi knew in advance that Turkish men aboard the ship Mavi Marmara, which attempted to forcibly break the IDF naval blockade on Hamas, were planning to attack soldiers. MK Danny Danon (Likud) said last week that in addition to that, there are new photos “that the public has not seen” that he hopes will be revealed in court.

Zoabi was widely criticized for taking part in the attempt to open the sea to Hamas imports, but remained in Knesset. She also met with senior Hamas terrorists and said that Israel has “no right to a normal life.”

Recent reports indicated that most members of the Central Election Committee are expected to back a motion to disqualify Zoabi. In any case the decision will be then be taken to the Supreme Court for a final ruling on the matter.

In his legal opinion Weinstein also said that requests to disqualify entire Knesset lists should be rejected, including the request to disqualify the list of the Otzma LeYisrael (Power to Israel) party led by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari.

The Chairman of the Central Election Committee, Justice Elyakin Rubinstein, has already invalidated the party’s election campaign, claiming that its use of Arabic and saying that “there are no rights without obligations” when it comes to Arabs constituted “racism”.