Lieberman Campaigns to Rid Terror Supporters from Knesset

YERUSHALAYIM
Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman ramped up his campaign to eliminate from the Knesset MK’s like Haneen Zoabi, who support terrorism against Israel.

Lieberman moved his legislative efforts online Wednesday morning. In a video, he urged the public to call upon MK’s to back his bill to prevent the High Court from overturning decisions made by the Central Elections Committee to ban a candidate or a party from running for Knesset, as it has done in the past.

“Together, we will kick out terror supporters from the Knesset,” Lieberman said.

Earlier this week, state prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain with Zoabi that would drop a charge of incitement against her for telling a crowd of protesters in 2014 that Israeli Arabs in the Israeli security forces “should be scared of us.” She is expected to face conviction on the lesser charge of disgracing a public servant, carrying only a fine or suspended sentence.

Referring to an Elections Committee decision to disqualify Zoabi and her party Balad (now part of the Joint Arab List), he said “the disqualification was done in line with the law, according to which those who support terrorism and an armed struggle against the state of Israel, or those who reject Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, will not be able to serve in its parliament.

“There is no doubt that the party of the traitor and spy Azmi Bishara and his successor Haneen Zoabi is doing this publicly, and it is time they paid the price,” he added.

Lieberman also took a swipe at the government for not backing his bill. “To my dismay, the government that calls itself a national one has decided to oppose the law,” he said.

In October, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to open a criminal investigation against Zoabi for calling for a “popular intifada” against Israel.

Zoabi responded on Wednesday afternoon by denouncing Lieberman as a “dangerous political figure” and a “fascist.”

“He is trying to gain cheap and inappropriate popularity by attacking and inciting against me and against the public that I represent,” Zoabi wrote.

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