‘If Israel wasn’t occupying West Bank, Palestinian kids wouldn’t need to kill Jews’
A lawmaker with the Arab nationalist Balad Party rejected accusations on Tuesday that his colleagues’ meeting with the families of Palestinian terrorists last week was tantamount to “a provocation.”
The Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Balad’s three MKs from all Knesset activity except for voting on Monday for up to four months, days after the lawmakers met with terrorists’ families.
Balad is one of the parties making up the Joint List.
MKs Haneen Zoabi and Basel Ghattas received four-month suspensions, and Balad chairman Jamal Zahalka, who has fewer past punishments from the committee, will be suspended for two months.
The panel received more than 450 complaints about the lawmakers, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and from relatives of people killed by the terrorists whose families the Balad MKs met.