Attorney General Dr. Avichai Mandelblit is demanding that MK Heba Yazbak (Joint List) provide explanations on a statement she made from which support for actions causing harm to IDF soldiers may be implied.
The Chairman of the Central Knesset Election Committee has received several applications to disqualify Yazbak from running in the March 2 Knesset election, inter alia, on the grounds of the stipulations of Article 7A of the Knesset Basic Law, which deals with "supporting an armed struggle of an enemy state or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel."
A letter sent on Sunday to Yazbak’s lawyers by Aner Helman, the Director of the Supreme Court Department at the Office of the State Attorney, states that the Attorney General views statements that expressly or implicitly indicate support for an armed struggle by an enemy state or a terrorist organization against State of Israel, including injury to IDF soldiers, as very serious.
Helman adds that the Supreme Court wishes to receive a clarification from MK Yazbak, backed up by an affidavit on her behalf, specifically regarding the following television interview conducted with her on Channel 13:
"Interviewer: Is that part of reasonable and legitimate resistance to the occupation as far as you’re concerned, to hurt the soldiers or to hurt the chief of staff?
MK Yazbak: International law itself allows peoples under occupation to work for their liberation.
Interviewer: Meaning, do you perceive harming soldiers as legitimate?
MK Yazbak: What is not legitimate is the continued occupation.”
Helman explains that this clarification is needed in order for the Attorney General to complete the formulation of his position in relation to the disqualification applications in Yazbak’s case.
The Blue and White party has said it would support a request seeking to disqualify Yazbak, a member of the Balad faction of the Joint List, from running in the March 2 election, which could mean a majority of votes in favor of her being disqualified.
Blue and White MK Zvi Hauser last week explained his party's decision to support the request to disqualify Yazbak.
"MK Yazbak crossed the line drawn by the legislators regarding supporting terror organizations," Hauser said. "She is continuing the same unfortunate path of the Joint List, which challenges the continuation of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state."
"Just like we prevented [Otzma Yehudit candidate Bentzi] Gopstein from running for the Knesset due to his statements, so, too, Yazbak does not need to sit in the Knesset due to her identification with violent struggle and terror.”
"Freedom of expression is a basic principle in Israel, but it is not an absolute principle. Anyone who identifies with terror groups and turns murderers into cultural heroes needs to be shown where the line is," stressed Hauser.