Gaza: Israel Facing Criticism in European Parliament

On Tuesday, speaking at a hearing in the European Parliament, a member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), Afu Aghbaria of the Hadash Party, declared, "In its 62 years of existence, Israel has attacked its neighbors and its Arab citizens nonstop. Israel prevents the passage of medicines and medical supplies to Gaza. As a result of this, 700 Gazans have died at the border crossings."

Aghbaria called on the international community to judge Israeli leaders at the Hague, "[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Minister of Defense Ehud] Barak, [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman and [opposition leader Tzipi] Livni should be brought to the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

Europe's Inter-Parliamentary Union on Wednesday asked Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin for clarification of the recent recommendation to revoke the privileges of Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zoabi because she was on the Freedom Flotilla.

The European Union's Council of Foreign Ministers, had already issued a statement on Gaza, demanding an impartial inquiry with international representation into the attack on the Flotilla, an end to the Gaza blockade with guarantees of Israel's security, Hamas' release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and an end to the firing of missiles into Israel.

Gaza Flotilla Video: Member of Israel Parliament Accused of Supporting "Terrorists"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1HEFXcRThA[/youtube]

A follow-up to EA's report on the statement of Haneen Zoabi of the Balad Party, who was on the Mavi Marmara and said that Israeli commandos fired on the Freedom Flotilla before boarding the ship....

During the Israeli Parliamentary session on Wednesday, she accused the Government of treating the Israel Navy’s bloody raid as a “pirate military operation". She asked why the soldiers had been ordered to confiscate reporters’ cameras and why the government had refused to allow the media to publish pictures of the nine people who were killed.



Zoabi called on the Government to open a national panel of inquiry and asked why it was so opposed to international calls for an impartial and external probe.

In response, Miri Regev of the LikudParty accused Zoabi of being “responsible for a double crime: joining terrorists, and a moral crime against the state of Israel”. Regev called at her in Arabic, “Go to Gaza, you traitor" and added:

She sat here over a year ago and pledged allegiance to the state of Israel and its laws. I have no intention of stifling free speech, but in the case of MK[member of Knesset] Zoabi --- it is not freedom of speech. The Gaza flotilla was a terrorist flotilla and MK Zoabi needs to be punished. We don’t need Trojan horses in the Knesset.

Regev may have been talking about this video in which the "terrorists" were using their "deadly weapons" against fully-equipped Israeli commandos.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sAEYpHF24[/youtube]