Knesset panel: No immunity for MK who visited Syria
Tibi: Prosecute non-Arab ministers who 'sought talks with Hamas chief' and shook hands with Iranian counterpart.
By Haaretz Service, Jack Khoury and Jonathan Lis Tags: Hamas Israel news Khaled MeshalThe Knesset House Committee on Tuesday rejected a request by Druze lawmaker Said Naffaa for immunity from prosecution over a 2007 visit to Syria, where he met the leaders of Palestinian militant groups.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said in December that he would indict Naffaa for an alleged meeting with Talal Naji, deputy chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and for visiting the offices of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal, although Meshal was not present at the time. Israel and the West view Hamas as a terrorist group.
Outraged by the decision, Arab MK Ahmed Tibi on Tuesday accused the panel members of racism, saying that non-Arab lawmakers should also face charges for their own moves to contact Israel's enemies.
If Naffaa was to be prosecuted for "contact with a foreign agent," Tibi told the committee, then so should Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas and Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov of Yisrael Beiteinu.
Tibi told the committee that Yishai tried to arrange a meeting with the Damascus-based Meshal via former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, while Misezhnikov allegedly shook hands with his Iranian counterpart in Madrid last week.
"What would have happened if the Iranian minister had asked to meet him [Misezhnikov] in some dark corner?" Tibi asked. "You would all have praised it as a great achievement. Why? Because he is Misezhnikov. Because he is not an Arab."
Naffaa on Monday wrote to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin to reject the accusations against him, arguing that his meetings in Syria were within his duties as a Knesset member and that political immunity should protect him from indictment.
"The attorney general's decision to indict me is irregular, strange and verges on discrimination," Nafaa told the committee Tuesday.
"I have no intention of hiding behind immunity," he said. "But the circumstances of the visit dictate that the place for this discussion is in the Knesset and not the courts."
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The assumption that runs through virtually all of these comments is that Arabs are homogenous. Their intentions are 'bad' by the virtue that they are Arabs. This is classic bigotry. Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth. - Edwin Hubbell Chapin
The official Israeli position has always been that Israel desires normal relations with its neighbors. Accordingly, isn't any sort of contact between the two countries desirable? Isn't it the official Israeli position and claim, that it is the Arabs who are not interested in "normalization"? The prosecution of Israeli citizens for visiting Syria demonstrates that there is really no difference between official Israel's approach to its neighbors to that of the Arabs. It shows that Israel is just as not interested in contact with its neighbors as the Arabs governments are...
it is an ethnocracy---pure and simple--racist society to the core. Most of the posts above tend to highlight my assertion.
so why is it racist if he's indicted? Tibi distorts it all and turns it upside down for his own Arab goals. When a Jewish PM is meeting the enemy it is in the name of trying to make peace, when an Arab is doing it, it's almost always in the name of betraying Israel.
The difference between a Jewish representative of Israel and an Arab representative of Israel meeting with enemies is obvious. The Jewish representative will try to negotiate with the enemy to find a peaceful and just solution to the conflict; the Arab representative will try to find ways to collude with the enemy to destroy the State of Israel! Is that clear enough?
Hamas vs. Kadima, give them equal rights, let them vote.
Whilst Eli Yishai tried to arrange a meeting he didn't actually carry it out. Its one thing to try and arrange something arrange to meet with an enemy via a third party and its something else to directly take it upon yourself to go hold the meeting without permission. Assuming Meshal agreed to meet with Eli Yishai he would have then had to get permission to go ahead with the meeting. Naffaa took it on his own head to arrange and then go meet with an enemy without permission. It also made sense for the jews to try and arrange a meeting before even asking for permission because whats the point of asking for permission from the government if Hamas are going to reject it. Assuming Masshal agreed to meet then its worth going to ask permission but whats the point unless you know he agrees to meet, at worst the government can refuse permission to go hold that meeting nothing gained nothing lost. To simply decide to hold a meeting without permission is something else.
Prosecute'em !
Talking to your friends is cosy. Talking to your enemies is difficult. MKs weren't elected to be cosy.
MK Tibi is a pathetic soul. Trying to compare a handshake with a rogue minister galavanting off to Syria who we are technically at a state of war is ridiculous. Also trying to compare MK IShai's request to meet the Hamas chief holds no comparison. Before any meeting could take place MK IShai would need approval by the Prime Minister himself. This is called following protocal and whats best for the State and not for ones own personal agenda. Said Naffa broke the rules and thus endangered Israel's security by doing so. We will never know what was discussed in Damascus. This amounts to treason and he should punished to the full extent of the law. By the way I hope MK Ishail will be able get a meeting with the head of Hamas with the PM approval. Diplomacy will be the only way to solve this conflict. Lets see if Hamas will have the courage to meet an Israeli official.
I'm sure they would get along really well