AL-QUDS, Nov 7: Israel’s parliament voted on Wednesday to strip Arab Israeli MP Azmi Bishara of immunity from prosecution to allow him to be charged with making anti-Israeli comments and organizing trips to Syria.

Bishara called for popular resistance to Israel during a June trip to Syria and has arranged for Arab Israeli constituents to visit the country without due authorization.

In a related move, the Knesset overwhelmingly passed on first reading a bill that would prohibit any party from putting up candidates for electoral office if it “supports armed struggle against Israel.”

Bishara, the first Israeli deputy to have his immunity from prosecution lifted for making a political statement, slammed the vote as “undemocratic” and said he would challenge it.

“Those who voted (for lifting the immunity) are the undemocratic ones,” he said, warning that this “was the beginning of a campaign to do away with the legitimacy of Israeli Arabs.”

Arab MP Ahmed Tibi, of the Arab Movement for Change, called the decision a “black day” for democracy in Israel.

“It is true that the state of Israel is a democratic Jewish state: only democratic for the Jews, and against the Arabs,” Tibi said bitterly in a statement.

The Knesset approved the decision in separate ballots on each of the charges.

On the issue of organizing trips by Arab Israelis to visit relatives living as refugees in Syria, 65 deputies voted in favour of lifting his immunity, while 24 were opposed and two abstained, Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said.

In a second ballot on Bishara’s anti-Israeli remarks, 61 deputies backed the move, to 31 against and two abstentions.—AFP