For the first time the Israeli Knesset Ethics Committee has decided to bar Arab MKs from traveling abroad on a trip subsidized by an organization that supports boycott of Israel.
Haaretz Hebrew newspaper said on Wednesday that Knesset members Yousef Jabareen and Hanin Zubi of the predominantly Arab Joint List party were informed on Tuesday by the committee that they had decided to refuse their request to fly abroad for a series of lectures abroad.
Jabareen was supposed to travel to the US for a series of lectures in April to be funded by Jewish Voice for Peace one of the leading supporting groups of the Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel (BDS) in the United States while Zubi was going to participate in a conference in Ireland.
In January the Knesset House Committee called on the Ethics Committee to consider barring Knesset members from undertaking travel funded by groups on the Strategic Affairs Ministry list.
In a response to Haaretz Jabareen said: “The committee’s decision constitutes a harsh blow to my freedom of political activity as an elected official. This activity is a fundamental and integral part of my role as a Knesset member.”
Jabareen said he is considering challenging the committee’s decision to ban his travel plans by filing a petition to the High Court of Justice. “The rule constitutes “an extreme infringement on Knesset members’ freedom of expression and freedom of political activity” he said.
