Arab Knesset members punished for helping their constituency
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Jamal Zahalka explains why he and his colleagues met with families in Jerusalem, claiming he is being punished for doing his parliamentary work.
AMMAN — Jamal Zahalka has been a member of the Israeli Knesset in good standing for 13 years. He was first elected to the 16th Israeli legislature in 2003 and has been regularly re-elected since.
But the Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset is now barred from speaking for two months in the Knesset plenary or in any of the committees on which he serves. Two other members of his Balad Party, Haneen Zoabi and Basel Ghattas, will be prevented from participating in the Knesset debates for four months.
In a phone interview with Al-Monitor, Zahalka explained that the Feb. 4 decision of the Ethics Committee against him and his colleagues “was purely political” and had nothing to do with ethics. The Ethics Committee deals with issues related to behavior and actions of Knesset members.
Zahalka, Zoabi and Ghattas are accused of showing sympathy with terrorists. Zahalka, however, said that the efforts of the parliamentarians to help families in East Jerusalem are “totally the kind of act a parliamentarian is supposed to do.”
