JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Arab-Israeli lawmaker reportedly will be subject to a Knesset Ethics Committee hearing over anti-Israel remarks she made in an interview with a Jewish-American newspaper, including saying that the state should be dissolved.
Arab Joint List lawmaker Haneen Zoabi told the editor of J. The Jewish News of Northern California that she was on a visit to the San Francisco area, where she spoke at the University of California, Berkeley, and was honored by the Berkeley City Council because “We must liberate Americans from the Zionist lobby.”
She also told the editor, Sue Fishkoff, referring to the State of Israel: “Your dream is my nightmare, and you need to wake up.”
The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday that Israeli lawmakers from two parties submitted complaints about Zoabi stemming from comments during the interview and her public appearances in California, citing unnamed sources on the committee. The lawmakers who complained “are not extremists,” The Jerusalem Post cited the sources as saying. The hearing likely will take place in the next two weeks, according to the report.
The Ethics Committee had authorized Zoabi’s trip and received information about it in advance, the sources also said.
In the Jewish News interview, Zoabi called for the State of Israel to be dissolved and replaced with either two states – one secular and one Palestinian, or one binational secular state.
“Anyone who is not anti-Zionist, who perceives himself as a left-wing Zionist, must recognize their complicity in the tragedy of the Palestinians,” Zoabi said. “You are either anti-Zionist and realize the colonialist dimension of Israel as a Jewish state, or you have to take responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians.”
Earlier this month at the United Nations in New York, Zoabi called on West Bank Palestinians to join in the Gaza border protests and said Israel was a fascist country. She was suspended from the Knesset for a week last month for calling Israeli soldiers murderers. A bid to impeach Zoabi under a new law following those remarks failed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
