Israel Matzav: Zoabi won't be disqualified, AG refuses to defend elections committee

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Zoabi won't be disqualified, AG refuses to defend elections committee

I must have gone to law school in a very strange place. When I took my course in 'professional responsibility' (i.e. ethics), I was taught that a lawyer is not a bus, he's a taxi, and that in private practice one had the right to refuse to take cases. But the same didn't apply to someone who was a public servant. I was taught that you didn't have to agree with a client in order to take their case - only to vigorously defend them.

But the rules are different here in Israel. Most of the organized bar - especially in the public sector - is extremely Leftist. And when they don't like something, or when something is not politically correct, they refuse to take the case. That's why no one could find a lawyer to vigorously defend Yigal Amir when he was charged with assassinating the Prince of Peace in 1995, and that's why Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D's (May God Avenge his blood) Kach party will once again remain the only party ever disqualified from running in an Israeli election.

The beneficiary of the Left's control of the legal system this time will be the seditious Hanin Zoabi and her Balad party.

"It is the opinion of the attorney-general that there is no room for the esteemed High Court of Justice to authorize the Central Elections Committee decision to bar MK Zoabi from running in the 19th Knesset," the attorney-general stated.

The court is set to hear Zoabi's petition on Thursday with a panel of nine justices, presided over by Supreme Court President Asher D. Grunis.

Zoabi has been one of the most controversial people in Israeli politics, following her participation aboard the Mavi Marmara ship sailing in the 2010 flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Sailors trying to commandeer the ship clashes with Turkish activists on board, and killed nine of them in the ensuing confrontations.

The state, as represented by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, has consistently opposed the ban on Zoabi, and indeed bans on any political parties in Israel. Last week, Weinstein recommended to the Election Committee not to disqualify MK Zoabi (Balad) or the United Arab List-Ta’al, Balad and Strong Israel parties, and to allow them all to run in the upcoming January 22 Knesset election.

The attorney-general said he deemed the evidence gathered against Zoabi to be “disturbing and substantial” and “close to the level of being prohibited,” but ultimately did not reach the “critical mass” necessary for disqualifying her.

Article 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset says that a party list or an individual candidate cannot reject Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to violence or support armed combat by an enemy state or terror organization against the State of Israel.

The point isn't what the Supreme Court will or will not decide. The point is that a politically incorrect point of view stands no chance of getting a fair hearing in this country.

And some people still call it democracy.

Labels: Hanin Zoabi, Knesset elections 2013, Yehuda Weinstein