Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to ban three Arab legislators from Israel's Knesset parliament after they met last week with the families of Palestinians in Jerussalem who had been killed while attacking Israelis.
Netanyahu had asked the attorney general to examine what legal steps can the state take against the three Arab lawmakers from the Joint Arab List's Balad faction, Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basser Ghattas. The prime minister said the lawmakers were "building walls of hatred."
Netanyahu said in a statement last Thursday that the three Members of Knesset (parliament) do not deserve to be in Israeli Knesset, Gulf News reports.
The Balad party said their lawmakers attended a meeting initiated by a Palestinian committee seeking to retrieve the corpses of attackers killed at the scene by Israeli security forces.
A violence occuring since October has killed 164 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, as well as an American and an Eritrean.
The Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces during clashes and demonstration. Israel is retaining the bodies of some attackers, a move said by Palestinians as a form of collective punishment for the families of the attackers.
Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said he retains the bodies of Palestinian attackers to avoid funerals becoming political rallies.
The meeting attended by the three Arab MKs was part of a campaign being conducted by the families as well as legal aid and human rights groups seeking to return of the bodies of family members who are being held by Israeli authorities.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said the meeting was tantamount to encouraging murder and he hoped the Knesset will act, Irish Times reports.
Edelstein had discussed with Netanyahu about the parliamentary actions they could take. Edelstein said that he suggested that both he and Netanyahu take the unprecedented step of submitting a personal complaint against the three MKs.
"There is an ethics committee in the Knesset that can consider and act when necessary. I hope that it will," Edelstein said.
According to Haaretz, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement Saturday evening that Netanyahu will also file a joint complaint with Edelstein to the Knesset Ethics Committee.
The Joint Arab List's balad faction said Netanyahu is exerting inappropriate political pressure on the attorney general and still treats him as the cabinet secretary and forgetting that he has an independent status and doesn't receive order from Netanyahu.
The Balad party said that burying the dead is a human and religious duty, shared by Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The party said in a statement that it condemned Netanyahu's action against the lawmakers.
