Yariv Levin
Yariv LevinFlash 90

Any Arab MKs to join the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the 20th Knesset will not be privy to classified information, MK Yariv Levin (Likud) stated Thursday.

"The general committee will only hold discussions which do not contain classified information, whereas sub-committees will include classified intel," he said, during an address at the Israel Democracy Institute in Tel Aviv Thursday.

"If a party insists on an MK being appointed to a committee, whether Jewish or Arab, they will get the spot, as established in the Knesset regulations," Levin said. "But it is the clear responsibility of the chairman of the committee to ensure that only discussions that do not include classified information take place, and to move classified hearings to the subcommittees." 

"With all the liberalness," said Levin, "Nobody really thinks we can entrust our secrets [to them] - not to [MK Hanin] Zoabi not to MK [Jamal] Zahalka, who will subsequently transfer the information to Azmi Bishara." 

Both Zoabi and Zahalka met with Bishara, the founder of the Balad party who fled to Qatar after passing information to Hezbollah in the 2006 Second Lebanon War to help direct their missiles at Israeli citizens, in September. 

Zoabi - who was recently barred from running but then reinstated by the Supreme Court - has been linked with Hamas on multiple occasions as well, even openly penning a letter supporting them during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. A recent poll suggested that some 85% of Israelis believe Zoabi should be booted from the Knesset. 

Zahalka is chairman of the Balad party, and himself has been involved in Hamas "victory rallies" which involved rampant anti-Israel incitement following the war.