Knesset member stripped of immunity

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Background / Bishara curbs could bolster militancy

By Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz Correspondent




In votes that may have landmark consequences for the future of Israeli
democracy, the Knesset moved Wednesday toward curbing the statements of
firebrand Arab lawmakers - a step that could also boomerang, making popular
martyrs of the very politicians the parliament aimed to muzzle.

For the first time in the country's history, the house voted to strip a
Knesset member of his parliamentary immunity in order to allow him to stand
trial for public utterances deemed politically inflammatory.

In a separate, but not-unrelated action, the parliament passed a preliminary
version of a bill that would in future bar from Knesset candidacy any person
deemed to have made statements supporting terrorism or Israel's enemies.

At the core of Wednesday's legislative action were declarations made in June
by MK Azmi Bishara (Balad-National Democratic Alliance), who is likely to be
charged with incitement against Israel for having urged Arabs to "the path
of resistance" in supporting the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

At the time, Bishara told a gathering of Arab leaders - among them, to
Israeli ire, militant Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah - that Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon was trying to drag the Middle East into war.

A Christian from the northern Israel city of Nazareth, Bishara also faces a
separate trial over having arranged for Israeli Arabs to visit Syria, an
offense under Israeli law as Damascus is still in a state of formal war with
Jerusalem.

Labor MK Yossi Katz was among a number of legislators who speculated that
the decision to lift Bishara's immunity would survive the Supreme Court
challenge, which a number of Arab MKs have vowed to mount.

Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit of the Likud had no doubts. "We must set a
limit to the extent that a Knesset member can hide behind his immunity and,
at the same time, act against the state of Israel. Is it conceivable that a
member of Israel's parliament... should speak before Hezbollah, urge
continuation of the war against Israel by Israel's enemies - and then
collect a salary from this same Knesset?"

Sheetrit told Israel Radio after the parliamentary votes that the "limits of
free speech and the limits of immunity end the moment that a Knesset member
acts against the state of Israel, and that is what Bishara did."

If Israeli rightists hoped to quell militancy or support for Bishara among
Israeli Arabs, however, the legislative action might turn out to have quite
opposite effects, turning Bishara into a hero even among Arabs whose support
for him had been lukewarm at best.

"If not a saint, he may now turn into a much-admired figure," said Ha'aretz
commentator Ori Nir. "You already see that sworn political rivals of Bishara
are mobilizing themselves on his behalf."

Nir said that Bishara's current support is a complex matter. "He has his own
public, from his own party, and there is also a wider circle of people who
do not really support his political line, who very much esteem his
leadership and intellectual abilities. He is seen by many not only as a
politician, but also as a thinker, and an intellectual trailblazer where the
struggles and sentiments and feelings of Israeli Arabs are concerned."

In the end, the Knesset votes may "boomerang" on its sponsors, Nir
concluded. "The most profound political consequence, especially if this
process of delegitimizing Bishara and his movement continues, is a
strengthening of those currents in the Israeli Arab community that operate
outside Israel's democratic process, such as the Sons of the Village and the
militant northern wing of the Islamic Movement, which oppose participation
in Knesset elections.

"The more you portray the Knesset as a place in which Arabs have no
influence, or have no ability to stand as equals, you bolster those who
argue that there's no point in playing by the rules of Israeli democracy,"
Nir commented.