Israel’s Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein asked the house committee of the Knesset on Tuesday to lift the parliamentary immunity of Arab MK Azmi Bishara, who faces charges of supporting a “terrorist organization.”
The committee convened to begin discussions on whether it would decide to lift Bishara's immunity, reported the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper.
In a stormy session, Rubinstein said the immunity granted to Knesset members "is not no-man's land" and that the "grave" remarks made by Bishara, in which he expressed support for “terrorist organizations,” were not at all connected to legitimate expressions of a political nature. In Rubinstein's words, the deeds attributed to Bishara were of the “gravest nature and cannot be accepted.”
Rubinstein quoted from speeches Bishara delivered at a rally in Umm Al Fahm last June and at a memorial ceremony for the late Syrian president Hafez Assad in Damascus this summer, in which he referred to the Lebanese Hizbollah movement as "opposition warriors in south Lebanon," and expressed appreciation for their battle against Israel.
The attorney general stressed that Bishara's statements were not covered in the essential immunity framework (which cannot be removed), and that they caused basic harm to the state.
In Rubinstein's words, the Knesset member's participation in a ceremony to remember Hafez Assad and his trips to Syria “were not the work of an MK.”
Bishara said that Rubinestein's decision to issue a letter of indictment was influenced by the current public mood.
Bishara had said that his statements were made as part of his role as a member of Knesset, and were therefore covered by the essential immunity framework, which cannot be lifted.
The MK maintains that the indictment against him is an attempt to redraw the democratic boundaries in Israel, and has emphasized that he was making a distinction between the killing of innocent civilians and legitimate opposition to occupation.
Rubenstein's draft indictment charges Bishara with praising violence and supporting a terrorist organization, in violation of the Prevention of Terror Ordinance.
Another indictment covers the MK's organizing of illegal trips to Syria for Arab Israelis.
Although Bishara can travel to Syria legally due to his diplomatic passport, it is against the law for ordinary citizens to visit a country with which Israel is at war without a special permit. Bishara, despite arguing that the visits were for a legitimate humanitarian purpose (allowing Israeli Arab's to visit Syrian relatives), never attempted to obtain permits for the trips.
"Both indictments pose a large question mark over Israel's pretensions to democracy," Bishara said at the time Rubinstein made his decision – Albawaba.com
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