Zoabi’s latest
In US, Joint List MK calls to ‘liberate Jews from Zionist lobby’
The Knesset Ethics Committee will hold a hearing on anti-Israel statements made by Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi in speeches she gave at Berkeley, California, and in an interview with Jewish News of Northern California editor Sue Fishkoff, sources on the ethics committee said.
The sources on the committee said on Wednesday that it had authorized her trip and received information about it in advance.
Two MKs from “two very different parties, who are not extremists” submitted the complaints, which will be dealt with in the next two weeks, the sources said. The sources said the MKs did not want their names revealed because it would hurt their case if they talk to the press.
Fishkoff, a writer for The Jerusalem Post for six years, revealed that Zoabi was feted by the Berkeley City Council and delivered a series of public lectures on the evils of the State of Israel.
“We must liberate Americans from the Zionist lobby,” she told Fishkoff, in what she said was her first interview with an American Jewish publication. “People are very misinformed. Raising awareness for Americans is very important.”
Zoabi blasted American left-wing, progressive Jews in the interview for not completely giving up their support for Israel.
“Anyone who is not anti-Zionist, who perceives himself as a left-wing Zionist, must recognize their complicity in the tragedy of the Palestinians,” Zoabi said. “You are either anti-Zionist and realize the colonialist dimension of Israel as a Jewish state, or you have to take responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians.”
Zoabi called for the dissolving Israel and replacing it with either two states – one secular, one Palestinian – or, ideally, one binational secular state with self-determination for both Jews and Palestinians. She said Jews outside Israel had no claim on that land and never did. But “70 years of reality” but Jews inside Israel were a fact on the ground and had rights.
She complained that she and other Israeli Arab citizens were paying the price for the Holocaust.
“In a democracy, the state should serve its citizens. If the state oppresses its citizens and then asks for loyalty, then maybe it is a fascist state. Of course, a Zionist may call me antisemitic, but I’m just a mirror. If my discourse is extremist, it’s because the reality is so extreme. You didn’t come to live with me, but to replace me.”
A spokeswoman for Zoabi said they were not familiar with the complaint.