Israeli parliament approves contentious suspension bill

The Israeli parliament adopted on late Tuesday night a controversial law allowing lawmakers to suspend their colleagues with a special majority.

Lawmakers voted in favor of the contentious "suspension bill" with 62 parliament members voting for it, and 47 lawmakers against it.

The law proposal states that a majority of 90 Israeli parliament members (out of an overall 120) can suspend a fellow member for "inciting to racism" and "supporting an armed struggle against Israel."

Out of the 90 parliament members needed for the suspension, 10 must be from the opposition, the proposal states. It would come into effect in two weeks' time, to allow lawmakers and organizations to appeal the law to the Supreme Court.

The legislation was advanced by Nissan Slomiansky from the nationalistic Jewish Home party, and is thought to be aimed against Arab Israeli parliament members.

The bill was promoted following a visit paid by three Arab Israeli lawmakers to the families of Palestinian attackers from east Jerusalem, amid the families' attempt to retrieve the bodies of their sons, withheld at the time by the Israeli authorities.

Arab Israelis are Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war and are citizens of the state. They constitute 20 percent of the population.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his support of the bill in recent months. On the other hand, President Reuven Rivlin slammed it in February, saying the proposal shows a "problematic understanding of parliamentary democracy."

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a statement on Tuesday that the bill "harms the very building blocks" of democracy, and mainly threatens Arab lawmakers, "whose actions and remarks do not favor with the political majority."

"This is one of the most serious legislative proposal in recent years, harming the right to freedom of expression, the right to vote and be elected and the right to representation," Attorney Debbie Gild-Hayo said in a statement by the ACRI.

This bill is the latest in a slew of measures promoted by the Israeli right-wing government in parliament deemed "anti-democratic" by critics from the Israeli left-wing and the international community.

Last week, for instance, the parliament authorized what came to be known as the "NGOs law." The law appears to target left-wing organizations, as it goes after groups that receive more than half of their funding from overseas governments or bodies, like the European Union.

It requires organizations to state they received foreign funding at their annual financial reports, all official publications, letters and communications with lawmakers and civil servants.

While the left-wing non-governmental organizations rely heavily on financial aid from foreign bodies, right-wing groups mostly rely on local donations.

These controversial bills are passed while Israel is becoming increasingly pressured by the international community to end its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians, following nine months of violence which claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 218 Palestinians. Endit