Interior Minister Eli Yishai petitioned Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to help him revoke the Israeli citizenship of Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi, who took part in efforts to break Israel's blockade of Gaza on a flotilla of aid ships earlier this week.
On Monday, Israeli navy commandos clashed with activists aboard the flotilla's largest ship, sustaining severe injuries and leaving 9 activists dead and dozens more hurt. IDF videos show activists attacking the commandos with sticks, chairs and even throwing a soldier overboard. Activists say that they were brutally attacked by the troops, while the IDF maintains that activists wrestled the soldiers' weapons away from them and fired at them, forcing them to defend themselves.
"In recent days," Yishai wrote to Weinstein on Thursday, "Israel's citizens have witnessed how an Israeli member of parliament, Hanin Zuabi, headed a group of terrorists who aimed to hurt Israel Defense Forces soldiers, under the protection of her parliamentary immunity."
Yishai asked Weinstein for his help as the Supreme Court had ruled that an interior minister cannot revoke a person's citizenship without the written authorization of the attorney general.
"MK Zuabi used her immunity as a cloak to protect her from the law, although she was undoubtedly aware of the activists' preparations for the attack against IDF troops," Yishai wrote. "This is a premeditated act of treason, and there is documented proof of this."
"I must say that since this is an issue having to do with the security of the state, and especially since we're likely due for more such flotillas, I ask that you study the laws that would allow stripping the immunity from any member of Knesset that would try, under the protection of immunity, to aid and cooperate with terrorists that have made IDF soldiers and citizens of Israel their targets," Yishai continued.
The minister concluded his letter by once again requesting Weinstein's cooperation in stripping Zuabi's immunity, in order to facilitate the revocation of her citizenship.
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