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Arab Knesset Member to be Stripped of Immunity
JERUSALEM, Occupied Territories, Nov. 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In Israel, tensions surfaced when the Knesset (Israeli parliament) voted to strip Arab Israeli deputy Azmi Bishara of his governmental immunity and expose him to prosecution.
Israel accuses him of making "anti-Israeli" statements and arranged unauthorized trips for his constituents to visit relatives living as refugees in Syria, which is still officially at war with Israel.
In a related move, the Knesset overwhelmingly passed on first reading a bill that would prohibit any party from putting up candidates for electoral office if it "supports armed struggle against Israel."
Bishara, the first Israeli deputy to have his immunity from prosecution lifted for making a political statement, slammed the vote as "undemocratic" and said he would challenge it.
"Those who voted [for lifting the immunity] are the undemocratic ones," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP), warning that this "was the beginning of a campaign to do away with the legitimacy of Israeli Arabs."
Arab MP Ahmed Tibi, of the Arab Movement for Change, called the decision a "black day" for democracy in Israel.
"It is true that the state of Israel is a democratic Jewish state: only democratic for the Jews, and against the Arabs," Tibi said in a statement.
The Knesset approved the decision in separate ballots on each of the charges.
On the issue of organizing trips by Arab Israelis to visit relatives living as refugees in Syria, 65 deputies voted in favor of lifting his immunity, while 24 were opposed and two abstained, Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said.
In a second ballot on Bishara's anti-Israeli remarks, 61 deputies backed the move, to 31 against and two abstentions.
The bill to limit candidacies was filed by right-winger Israel Katz, who said it was aimed at Bishara's Arab nationalist Balad party and "any other Arab party" that supports armed action against Israel.
It was approved by a vote of 72 to 20, with six abstentions, and must pass two more readings before becoming law.
Bishara, Balad's only MP, called during a memorial service for late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in Damascus for "expanding the dimensions of the resistance to Israel and enabling the people to struggle and fight."
In August, government legal advisor Eliakim Rubinstein announced he wanted to press charges against the deputy for speaking out against Israel in Syria.
Rubinstein also accused Bishara of supporting Hezbollah, Lebanon's resistance group, and of "organizing illegal trips by Israeli Arabs in Syria," a justice ministry spokesperson told AFP.
Rubinstein, who is also state prosecutor general, asked the Knesset to lift Bishara's parliamentary immunity in order to allow the prosecution to move ahead.
Around 30 Israeli deputies have lost their immunity in the past for corruption and abuse of power, but a vote backing the panel's decision was the first time it has happened for mere words.
Bishara has said the trips to Syria were a humanitarian mission to allow Arab Israelis to visit relatives living as refugees there.
The controversial vote highlighted the difficulties of the million Arab citizens of Israel, those who chose not to flee their properties when the Jewish state was declared in May 1948, as well as their descendants.
While the Jewish majority of Israel's six million people annually celebrate the foundation of their state, the Arab Israeli community commemorates what it calls the "Nakba," or disaster.
Around 90% of the Arab community also boycotted the February prime ministerial polls in protest at the killing of 13 Arab-Israelis by Israeli police in October 2000, shortly after the start of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.
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