House Committee delays vote on Libya visit

MKs call for removal of Haneen Zoabi for trip and flotilla participation.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Zuabi nice 298 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
Zuabi nice 298
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
While MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) spent the morning hours Monday in IDF custody following her participation in the Free Gaza Flotilla, House Committee Chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) announced that he would delay a committee hearing regarding her recent controversial trip to Libya.
“At this time, we lend our strength to the IDF soldiers who are stopping the incitement flotilla,” said Levin, “The events underway and the attack against IDF soldiers by flotilla participants testify to the severity of the participation by Israeli citizens, and especially that of Zoabi. The importance of the procedure underway in the Knesset committee is clearer now than ever.”
Levin said that “as soon as the events” regarding the flotilla have concluded, he intends to resume the procedure, in which MKs are pushing for parliamentary immunity to be stripped from the six MKs who visited Libya last month.
Zoabi was reportedly present on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, on which protesters battled against the naval forces that had come aboard. Early Monday morning, when reports first surfaced of violent confrontations between the ship’s passengers and security forces, Zoabi’s family called Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin to inquire as to her well-being.
Rivlin contacted both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Deputy DefenseMinister Matan Vilna’i, and reported back to Zoabi’s family that theirdaughter remained physically unharmed.
But a tough battle awaits the first-term MK when she returns to theparliament building.  Beyond the expected hearing regarding her Libyavisit, Zoabi will now most likely face further hearings on herparticipation in the flotilla.
“I have nothing but contempt for Knesset Member Haneen Zuabi who joinedthis illegal, pro-Hamas activity,” complained MK Danny Danon (Likud).“She has no place anymore in Israel’s Knesset, the seat of our nation’sdemocracy. She should be expelled and tried for treason.”
MK Miri Regev (Likud) accused Zoabi of “committing an ethical crimeagainst the State of Israel, and by doing so expresses her disloyaltyto Israel – and for that she should be punished.”
“MK Zoabi expresses the nationalist extremism of Israeli Arabsregarding the State of Israel,” continued Regev, adding that she“intends to ask the Knesset speaker to check whether she is stilllegally capable of serving in Israel’s Knesset.”