Guards escort Zoabi out of the Knesse
Guards escort Zoabi out of the KnesseIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has dealt  what may be a fatal blow to a Knesset attempt to prevent Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi from running in the elections.

He told the High Court Wednesday that he is against banning her from running on the Balad Arab party. The court will meet on Thursday to rule on her appeal against the Knesset Elections Committee decision to ban her for from running because of her participation in the IHH terrorist flotilla two and half years ago. Three dozen IHH terror activists brutally clubbed Navy commandos who boarded their Mavi Mamara ship virtually unarmed after the boat’s captain refused to change course from Hamas-controlled Gaza, under a maritime embargo.

The commandos overcame the attackers, but only nine of them were killed.

The Knesset committee voted 19-9, with one abstention, to prohibit her from running.

“My problem is that I am not a terrorist,” Zoabi said after the vote. “My problem is that I am  perhaps too democratic The problem with Balad and with the Arab MKs is that we are democratic in an atmosphere that does not believe in democracy.”

MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) said after the committee decision to bar her from running, "MK Zoabi blatantly transgressed the Basic Law: Knesset when she took part in the terror attack aboard the Marmara, and she therefore has no place in the Knesset. Israel's democracy must know how to defend itself from those who seek to destroy it from within.

“I hope and believe that the disqualification will be upheld by the High Court."