Arab-Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Hanin Zoabi was the first Arab citizen of Israel to graduate from a media studies course in the Jewish state. She has praised Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, saying that only a situation of Mutually Assured Destruction would restrain Israel.

Zoabi entered the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in 2009 as a member of the Balad Party, an all-Arab party. She became famous when she rode on one of the flotilla ships that was stopped by Israel on May 31, 2010. The flotilla was an act of war against Israel, an attempt to break the security blockade that Israel was enforcing to protect itself by preventing arms from entering Gaza. If there had been no blockade, the rockets launched by Hamas during the recent war would have been significantly more destructive. Their only purpose, after all, was to kill Israeli civilians; the rockets had no strategic or military value.

Has any other country in the world allowed a member of its parliament to participate in an act of war against the country? Only Israel is free enough to allow someone like that to be part of the government.

Why is there a blockade of Gaza?  In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, thus creating an independent Palestinian mini-state. In 2007, Hamas, a party committed to destroying Israel, seized power. In 2008, rockets regularly began falling on Israel. Nevertheless, Israel has consistently allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The blockade has never been a siege.

Hanin Zoabi knew that the flotilla incident would not ease the situation of the people living in Gaza. It was a military gesture aimed at stopping Israel from protecting itself. Recently, she declared that it was the right of Palestinians to fight against the Israeli “occupation.” She did this at a rally celebrating the “victory” of Hamas in Operation Protective Edge.

Zoabi does not wear a headscarf. She wears short-sleeved shirts. What would she do in a country ruled by Muslims? Could she even sit in their parliament?

She of course doesn’t know that Golda Meir was the first woman in history to become a head of government who was neither the daughter (like Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) nor the wife, (like Sirimavo Bandaranaike) of a previous head of government. Feminists don’t know this, so why should Zoabi?

Israel should be proud of the fact that it allows such a hostile person to sit in the Knesset. The degree of freedom found in Israel is unique, and the presence of Hanin Zoabi proves it.