The Israeli High Court has overturned on Sunday the ban of Haneen Zoabi of the Balad Party from running for re-election to her position in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.Zoabi, a Palestinian who has Israeli citizenship, was banned from running in the upcoming elections by the Elections Committee predominantly due to her participation in the 2010 ‘Freedom Flotilla.’ She was aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, on which 9 Turkish citizens were killed; the UN’s investigation into the killings deemed that 5 of the 9 were executions.
Following Zoabi’s participation in the flotilla, several Israel politicians pushed not only for the revocation of her position in the Israeli parliament, and with it her protection from prosecution, but also the revocation of her Israeli citizenship. Zoabi was born in Nazareth, in Israel’s north, one of the few places in Israel where Palestinians were not expelled from in 1948, leading to the creation of the State of Israel.
Zoabi has also faced persecution from her colleagues in the Knesset for her work against Israel’s discriminatory practices against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the State’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel currently has more than 30 laws that explicitly discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The High Court has not issued a detailed report on its verdict; it will follow in the coming days.
