Democracy Israeli style is a little peculiar. Speaking your mind in public can get you officially muzzled. Especially if you are a Palestinian Israeli. Palestinian members of the Knesset are used to being marginalized as token representatives. They are systematically excluded from any governing coalition including the ruling coalitions they support. That keeps them without any real influence or leverage. Their speeches to the Knesset are often met with a chorus of catcalls.
One Palestinian Israeli member of the Knesset Haneen Zoabi was outspoken against the clamor for revenge on Palestinians following the recent tragic murders of the three teens, and then had the audacity to speak out against Netanyahu's vicious assault on Gaza.
MK Zoabi suspended from Knesset plenum for excusing West Bank kidnap
By Jonathan Lis
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) has been suspended from addressing the Knesset plenum and committees for six months due to comments including last month’s assertion that the kidnappers of three Jewish teens in the West Bank were not terrorists.
She described an “anti-democratic decision of the tyrannical majority to silence the voice and opinion of the minority.” She said the ruling was made in a “fiery atmosphere of war and expresses a vengeful, fascist approach. The only connection between [the decision], ethics and the Knesset Ethics Committee is that it is an immoral and anti-ethical decision.”
Zoabi also described the decision as “punishment.” While she “opposes war and killing,” the committee ignores “MKs like [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman who have called for me to be killed, and the calls of many MKs who have called for the killing of Palestinians.”
The decision came after Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri said the police would not investigate Zoabi for incitement.
A six-month suspension is the maximum penalty that can be imposed on an MK, and this was the first time it has been employed. Because the Knesset begins a three-month summer recess next week, Zoabi will be barred from taking part in the upcoming winter session.
Is this is the repressive way the minority gets treated by the democratic institutions Israelis are always touting as the best in the Middle East, then their claims ring hollow.
The latest from Gaza. Its happened again.
Gaza conflict: At least 15 dead after tank shells hit UN school
Israeli tank shells slammed into a crowded UN school Wednesday sheltering Gazans displaced by fighting, killing 15 and wounding 90 after tearing through the walls of two classrooms, a spokesman for a UN aid agency and a health official said.
"We were scared to death," he said. "After 4:30 a.m., tanks started firing more. Three explosions shook the school."
"One classroom collapsed over the head of the people who were inside," he said.
In one classroom, the front wall was blown out, leaving debris and bloodied clothing. Another strike tore a large round hole into the ceiling of a second floor classroom. The wall of the lavatories was also damaged.
This is looks like a pattern of deliberate atrocities.
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