Haneen Zoabi

She is a relative of Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, a former mayor of Nazareth and member of the Knesset between 1949 and 1959, and again from 1965 until 1979, and Abd el-Aziz el-Zoubi, a Deputy Health Minister and the first Arab member of an Israeli government.

Haneen Zoabi (حنين زعبي, חנין זועבי; born 23 May 1969), is a Palestinian-Israeli politician.

Zoabi joined Balad in 2001.

In 2003, she co-founded the NGO I'lam – Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel (pronounced e'e'lam).

She ran for Knesset as a Balad candidate in 2006, but was too low on the party's electoral list to win a seat.

The first Arab woman to be elected to the legislature on an Arab party's list, she served as a member of the Knesset for the Balad party between 2009 and 2019.

In 2021, she was convicted of forgery and fraud after pleading guilty.

Haneen Zoabi was born in Nazareth to a Muslim family.

Zoabi studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Haifa, earning a Bachelor of Arts, and received a Master of Arts in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She was the first Arab citizen of Israel to graduate in media studies, and established the first media classes in Arab schools.

She also worked as a mathematics teacher and worked as a school inspector for the Israeli Ministry of Education.

Zoabi was its general director until she resigned shortly before the 2009 election to focus on her political career.

However, prior to the 2009 elections she was placed third on the Balad list, and entered the Knesset after the party won three seats, becoming the first female Arab MK to represent an Arab party (the two previous female Arab MKs Hussniya Jabara and Nadia Hilou had represented Meretz and Labor).

In 2009, she met with Code Pink, and Coalition of Women for Peace.

During the build-up to the January 2013 elections, it was announced in December 2012 that the Central Elections Committee (CEC) and a panel of Supreme Court judges would hold discussions on whether to disqualify Zoabi, as well as the Balad and United Arab List parties, from the upcoming elections.

The request for her disqualification was submitted by MK Ofir Akunis (Likud) and had obtained the necessary number of signatures.

It stated that "throughout her years in the Knesset, Zoabi has constantly undermined the State of Israel and has openly incited against the government, its institutions and IDF soldiers."

The request also claimed that Zoabi negated Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state, which made her eligible for disqualification.

Zoabi called the sponsors of the request fascists and said that "for whoever does not want citizens to have free elections, I am one of many targets ..."

She added that only "dark regimes" are proud of disqualifying election candidates.

After hearing the case, the Central Elections Committee disqualified Zoabi in a 19–9 vote.

The Supreme Court overturned the disqualification, with the nine-judge panel headed by Supreme Court President Asher Grunis unanimously voting to overturn the ban.

Zoabi was subsequently re-elected.

Zoabi faced a similar situation prior to the March 2015 elections.

On 12 February 2015, the CEC voted 27–6 to disqualify Zoabi from running in the elections.

However, on 18 February the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in an 8–1 decision.

But in 2016 in Switzerland Zoabi retracted this somewhat and said:

She also believes that the West should engage with rather than boycott Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

She commented, "No one can tell the Palestinian people whom to choose as a government. Hamas is not a terrorist organization.... Regardless of whether I disagree [with Hamas], the international community cannot mediate neutrally if it starts to label the organizations of the Palestinians as illegitimate."

She has described soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces as "murderers".

Following the elections, Likud MK Danny Danon initiated a bill dubbed the "Zoabi Law" in February 2019.

An amendment to the Basic Law dealing with legislation, it would make it harder for the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the Central Elections Committee.

The bill failed to pass.

She retired from national politics prior to the April 2019 elections, although she was given a symbolic 113th slot on the joint list of Balad and the United Arab List.

Zoabi views herself as a Palestinian.

She considers the two-state solution unrealistic and describes as inherently racist the notion that Israel is a Jewish state.

Instead she advocates a single state shared by Jews and Palestinian Arabs with full rights and equality for both national groups.

She has said, "The reality of Israel's actions shows us that it's unrealistic to have a real sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza with Jerusalem as the capital. The more realistic solution is one state with full national equality for both national groups."

Zoabi argues that rejection of the Jewish state concept is the only way to combat Avigdor Lieberman's demand that Israeli citizens take loyalty oaths.

Rejecting the 'Jewish state' concept, she says, "is the only idea that can remove Lieberman from the circle of political and moral legitimacy... When you agree with the 'Jewish state' idea, you necessarily agree with the idea of loyalty to this state. Rejecting the 'Jewish state' concept will block the road for anyone who demands our loyalty to such a state."