Is Arab Knesset member Zoabi on her way out?
The Israeli Knesset is expected to approve a bill enabling a three-fourths majority of 90 members to expel another member on the grounds of incitement against the state or relations with a terror organization.
On July 17, the results of the internal Arab Balad Party elections were made public: Knesset member Haneen Zoabi was pushed to an unrealistic place on her party list. Just 24 hours later, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee convened to vote on the suspension bill, also known as the Zoabi bill, toward its final ratification in the plenum during its second and third readings.
Following the elections in her party, Zoabi will probably not serve in the next Knesset and may even conclude her political activities. It turns out that Zoabi succeeded in creating pockets of resistance and anger due to her provocative methods even in her own party. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of her opponents within the Joint List (unified slate of predominantly Arab parties) said that her “irresponsible and unwise” behavior not only did nothing to strengthen her within the faction, but caused the faction irreversible damage. Evidently she will be forced to pay a political price for her behavior.
The Balad Party’s electorate voted on a list of party members in June, and the faction’s political committee publicized the results July 17. Zoabi was pushed down from third to fifth place on the party’s list, which effectively puts her out of the running to be re-elected to the Knesset. But the damage has already been done: Zoabi has inflicted great harm on the Joint List and on Jewish-Arab relations in general.
Zoabi was first elected to the 18th Knesset in 2009, and during her three terms in office she became a red flag for the Jewish public as well as for a broad swath of the Arab-Israeli sector, which views her as being responsible for deepening the widening chasm between Jews and Arabs. Most of the members of the Joint List and its activists objected to her modus operandi — mainly her statements more than her actions. However, they found themselves forced to defend her, if only to maintain the integrity of the Joint List and its political future. Zoabi’s antics played into the hands of right-wing Knesset members, and the suspension bill will be wielded as a threat against Arab members of the Knesset even after Zoabi leaves the legislature.
