Israeli parliament revokes immunity of Arab lawmaker

The Knesset, Israel's parliament, voted to revoke the parliamentary immunity of an Israeli-Arab lawmaker on Thursday.

The vote came just after Basel Ghattas, who is being investigated for smuggling mobile phones for Palestinian prisoners, told the Speaker that he agreed to give up his immunity.

A preliminary approval for the vote was given by the Knesset House Committee on Wednesday.

The loss of immunity means that Ghattas could face arrest and prosecution.

According to statements by the Attorney General's Office, Ghattas came to a prison in southern Israel on Dec. 18 to visit Walid Daka, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984, and Basel Basra, jailed for security offenses.

Both prisoners are members of the Fatah, the Palestinian ruling party.

A video on the visit showed the lawmaker giving Basra four envelopes, where 12 mini cell phones were found later, and handing documents to Daka.

In Tuesday's questioning, Ghattas said the phones were given for "humanitarian reasons" and the documents contained political materials about his party Balad.

Balad, an Arab-Palestinian nationalist party, often confronts the Israeli government.

Palestinian security prisoners in Israel are not allowed to make phone calls to their families. Family visits are also difficult as most of the Palestinians can't gain entry permit from Israel.

In Israel, the Arab minority, most of who are stranded Palestinians during Israel's 1948 Independence War, makes up about one fifth of the population. Endit