Chutzpah, thy name is Israeli Arab Knesset members.
Israeli Arab lawmakers responded angrily Wednesday to proposed legislation that would prevent anyone who travels to a country classified as an enemy state from serving as a Knesset member.
The Knesset plenum approved proposals for two bills on this issue in preliminary readings on Wednesday.
The bills were drafted by right-wing MKs Zevulun Orlev of National Union-National Religious Party and Esterina Tartman of Yisrael Beiteinu.
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra’am-Ta’al) said that “the Knesset is steeped in racism. Corrupt members of Knesset want a Knesset without Arabs. The face of the Knesset is the face of Esterina: Knesseterina. If I am invited [to enemy states] I will go regardless of the law. I am sure that a person who violates an unjustified law, or whose conscience is not completely clear, and is willing to pay the price and be imprisoned in order to raise public awareness regarding the injustice in the law, then that person is showing his respect to the most supreme values.”
And I thought “That is not a drug. It’s a leaf” was absurd.
Where I come from, visiting an enemy state is called treason, and being prevented from serving in parliament would be the least of your worries. The fact that Arab MKs would be most affected by this proposed legislation speaks more about them than proponents of the bill.
But this theater of the absurd gets more absurd.
Talab A-Sana (Ra`am-Ta`al) said that “the bill is opposed to peace, the Arab public, and its representatives that are visiting Arab states. This is a dark bill that constitutes political persecution, and shows what a substandard level the Knesset has reached.”
Visiting an enemy state to promote peace? I don’t think so.
