Anti-Israel Arab lawmaker & Jewish extremist barred from running in election

Israel’s Central Election Commission has banned both Palestinian Arab Hanin Zoabi and Jewish activist Baruch Marzel from the 2015 Israeli elections.

By i24news

 

Israel’s Central Election Commission on Thursday has barred controversial Arab Israeli lawmaker Haneen Zoabi from running to the Knesset in the upcoming general election, following petitions filed by the rightist Likud and Israel Beitenu parties.

Arab Israeli Knesset member Hanin Zoabi – Photo: AFP

Far-right activist Baruch Marzel, one of the leaders of the outlawed Kach movement, was too barred from participating in the March 17 election.

In the summer Zoabi, a member of the Balad party, was banned from the Knesset plenum for six months after she made comments saying that the kidnappers who murdered three Israeli teens were “not terrorists.”

“They [the kidnappers] are not terrorists. I don’t agree with you, they are people who see no other way to change their reality, so they are forced to use these means,” Zoabi told Israel’s 102 FM radio last June, “at least until Israel wises up, and until Israeli society opens up and feels the pain of the other.”

Marzel, a US-born settler, has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for assaults on Palestinians, left-wing activists and law enforcement officers.

He has called for violence against Israel’s LGBT community.

In July 2014, Facebook removed his page following multiple complains citing racist incitement.

 

View original i24news publication at: http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/politics/60907-150212-israel-controversial-arab-lawmaker-far-right-activist-barred-from-running-in-election