MK Ghattas: the Flotilla is peaceful, let them remove my immunity
June 24, 2015
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766130
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Arab MK Basel Ghattas said this week that threats by fellow Israeli lawmakers to remove his parliamentary immunity will not affect his decision to take part in the Freedom Flotilla III.
The Israeli Knesset Committee reportedly voted in favor Tuesday of stripping Ghattas, a member of the Joint List— the Arab parliamentary bloc that won 13 Knesset seats in Israel’s last election— of his immunity from prosecution for joining the the protest flotilla.
The Flotilla is the third of it’s kind to attempt to access the Gaza Strip by sea since 2010, aiming break the Israeli blockade with a convoy of ships carrying human rights activists, European lawmakers, Ghattas, and others.
Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev- member of Netanyahu’s Likud party- demanded earlier this week that Ghattas’ immunity be removed if he joined the flotilla.
“We must end the use of the position of MK as a tool to undermine the government. Its time to instill order, and prevent Arab MKs from inciting against Israel,” Israeli news source Ynet reported Regev writing to an attorney general.
Ghattas told Ma’an that Miri Regev’s statement represents Israeli racist rightist parties, saying “let them remove the immunity.”
