MK Miri Regev (Jewish Home) on Sunday asked the Attorney General to strip MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) of her Knesset immunity. The request came after Zoabi allegedly refused to appear as scheduled for questioning by police over statements she made that got her suspended from Knesset work – on the claim that she did not have to speak to police because she had immunity.
Zoabi is supposed to be under investigation for incitement to violence and insulting a public employee.
The Knesset Ethics Committee last week barred Zoabi from the Knesset committees and plenum for six months. This is the most severe punishment that the Ethics Committee can mete out to a Knesset Member, according to the Rules of the Knesset. The decision follows complaints filed against Zoabi by several MKs, including Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), following her statement that the murderers of the three Jewish yeshiva boys are not terrorists and even sought to justify the act.
“It is unfathomable that Zoabi can do as she likes with the forces of the law in Israel,” said Regev in her letter to the Attorney General. “I call on the Knesset to put an end to this farce and to put her on trial for incitement."