TEL AVIV, Israel, April 20 (UPI) -- Arab members of Israel's Knesset met Hamas leaders this week in a move that angered Jewish legislators and sparked a debate on whether one of them, who just joined Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, should remain.
Two Arab Knesset members, Ibrahim Sarsur and Talab al-Sana of Raam-Taal, a party led by the Islamic Movement, Wednesday met the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh and Legislative Council Member Mohammad Abu Ter, both of Hamas.
Thursday, members of the Arab-nationalist Balad faction also met with Hamas legislators.
Balad Knesset member Wassel Tahaa said their meeting was designed "to identify with members of the Palestinian Parliament who were elected in a legitimate, democratic process."
The United States, the European Union, and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Along with Egypt, they are pressing the new Hamas government to recognize Israel, renounce terror, accept agreements that the Palestinian Authority signed with Israel, and follow the internationally devised "road map" for peace.
Jordan too barred Hamas' new foreign minister from visiting. The fact that Israeli-Arab parties seemed to break ranks and show solidarity with the enemy irked Jewish legislators.
The timing made it worse. Monday a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv, killing nine people in addition to himself. Some 70 people required medical treatment and many are still in serious condition.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, condemned the bombing but Hamas said it was "a natural response" to Israeli "aggressions."
"We always reiterate the right of the Palestinian people to defend itself against the IOF (Israeli occupation forces') hostilities," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The Knesset has often seen shouting matches between Jewish and Arab legislators but several Israeli Knesset members considered al-Sana's trip to East Jerusalem a special case: He was just co-opted to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
"It is obvious that any person of his kind... cannot be a member," the committee's chairman Yuval Steinitz of the hard-line Likud said.
"It's not because he is an Arab. It's because of his deeds, his declarations... Whoever sits in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee must be committed to (enhance) Israel's security, its military power... (Keep) Israeli security secrets."
The committee is supposed to exercise "effective and intrusive supervision over the defense establishment. It's important for security... for democracy... A Knesset member who meets terror organizations, who has contacts with terror organizations... cannot be exposed to Israel's secrets," Steinitz continued.
Minister Ronni Bar-On, a former member of that committee who now heads the Kadima's Knesset faction, which emerged first in last month's elections, said he always felt that "in a situation as today's, it is not right to co-opt Arab Knesset members into the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. It would restrict the committee's work."
"There is a limit to absurdity, even in a democracy," argued Effie Eitam of the hawkish National Religious Party-National Union faction.
"I don't see any sense in (having) the head of the Shabak (security service), the head of the Mossad (intelligence service) or the director of Military Intelligence brief the committee if (they) would know that the material goes straight to the heads of a terrorist organization," Eitam, a retired controversial Brig. Gen. said.
Even Haim Oron, of the extremely dovish Meretz Party, criticized the meeting. However, Oron said, al-Sana should not be expelled from the prestigious committee. It would be wrong to "use the Arab Knesset members' rights as a tool in political arguments." Such a move could be a precedent for action in other committees as well, Oron warned.
Al-Sana may not be a serious security risk since the real sensitive information is not provided in the committee's plenary meetings. What is said there is leaked, regularly, and army, intelligence, and other sources are aware of it. The real secret information is discussed in subcommittees where strict security is kept.
Former Arab Knesset Member Hashem Mahamid, who served on that committee for several years, told United Press International that the information he gleaned in those meetings had been published "that morning, the following day, or a week before."
"I felt that things (committee members) used to hear when I was not around were not being said when I was present," he recalled.
Mahamid criticized moves to revoke al-Sana's membership in that committee. "It's not democratic... He is a Knesset member. He has immunity to follow his conscience... That immunity is unconditional."
Al-Sana, told UPI that Wednesday's meeting was designed "to prevent an escalation."
He and Sarsur recommended a cease-fire and negotiations on the basis of an Arab peace initiative endorsed in Beirut, he said. It calls for an Israeli withdrawal and eventual peace with the Arab states.
"This campaign of incitement (against me)... is racist and unfit. (It's because) we are Arabs... and they don't want to hear another opinion... I am ready to resign from the committee but not that someone will disqualify me. I have a right to be represented in all the committees (and not be kept out) because my color is different, my views are different, or my national identity is different," he said.
Tel Aviv University Prof. Asa Kasher, who specializes in professional ethics, noted the meeting with the Hamas minister was held after that government had "expressed understanding for an act of terror... A minute after nine people were murdered in the street, and instead of taking exception, like the (Palestinian) president did there is a kind of (Hamas) sympathy... identification with terror, and this is unacceptable."
Kasher rejected a suggestion the Arab Knesset members were accurately representing their voters.
"You can't say that respecting an enemy government that understands terror is in their (party's) platform," he argued. However membership in a Knesset committee is not a present nor a topic for punishment. That is not the way to react, he maintained.
