Zoabi banned from Knesset for six months

Balad MK will be able to vote, but not participate in any other activity in plenum, committees following comments Knesset speaker said border on "incitement encouraging violence and supporting terrorism."

MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) will be banned from all parliamentary activity except voting for the next six months, following a Knesset Ethics Committee ruling Tuesday on complaints by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and other lawmakers.

Zoabi's punishment will take effect on Wednesday, the last day of voting before the Knesset goes on recess until October, at which point she will not be able to make speeches, submit parliamentary questions or initiate debates in committees or the plenary.

The Ethics Committee received many complaints about Zoabi in recent weeks about her saying the kidnapping of three teens in Gush Etzion in June, who later were found murdered, is not terrorism, and for her support for Hamas rocket attacks on Israel during Operation Protective Edge.

Edelstein also submitted a complaint, telling the committee that many citizens appealed to him to take action against Zoabi because "her statements bordering on incitement encouraging violence and supporting terrorism."

The Knesset Speaker specifically mentioned an article Zoabi published on a Hamas website in which she encouraged Palestinians to take part in "popular resistance" and called to "put Israel under siege instead of negotiating."

He also quoted Zoabi's statements in a radio interview following the kidnapping of the three boys: "[The kidnappers] are not terrorists. They have to use these means, until Israel will wake up a little, until the citizens of Israel and Israeli society will wake up and feel the suffering of the other."

Finally, Edelstein sent the committee a video in which Zoabi displays aggressive behavior toward police officers during a demonstration in Haifa against IDF activities.