MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) may be barred from the 20th Knesset for now, but she will not be found guilty of incitement to violence, her lawyer claimed to Channel 10 Tuesday.
The Supreme Court judged Tuesday over the appeals of Zoabi as well as Otzma Yehudit MK Baruch Marzel, who was also barred from the Knesset elections.
Zoabi at the hearing's opening claimed that the rejection of her candidacy is "political persecution and racist."
"I'm being punished for the fact that I was unable to be banned the last time," Zoabi claimed, referring to an attempt to disqualify her from the 2013 elections that was overturned by the Supreme Court.
During the hearing, Zoabi's lawyer also hinted that a settlement may be made over charges of incitement to violence against her, indicating that the charges may be dropped, leaving her only with charges of insulting a public service member.
The charges are related to an incident in Nazareth in July, where Zoabi verbally abused two Arab Israeli police officers, calling them "traitors," and urged Arab youths to attack them.
MK Yariv Levin (Likud), who had brought the disqualification petition against Zoabi forward, stated, "It is time to stop distorting the Basic Law and rejecting the decisions of the Central Elections Committee."
"Zoabi has done a long list of actions [against Israel] - each of which would disqualify her from serving in the Knesset, not even for one day," he continued. "I call on the justices to approve the decision of the election Commission and remove this disgrace. "
Zoabi has a long history of radical anti-Israel statements made from her position as a member of Israel's Knesset.
Among other things she has said that Israel has “no right to a normal life,” and that “the Israeli occupation” was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria. She has also declared that Israel should "thank her" for allowing Jews to live in the Jewish state.
Her comments justifying the murder of the three Israeli teens eventually earned her a six-month ban from the Knesset plenum, which she recently began serving.