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On January 26, 2010, Arab KM Sa'id Naffaa was stripped of his parliamentary immunity so that Israel's Attorney General can criminally indict him for various political offenses surrounding his visit to Syria in September 2007.
Naffaa believes the charges are political and discriminatory, not issued in good faith because he's an Arab. Before the Knesset House Committee, he said:
-- the first charge was over his Syria trip as head of a Druze religious leaders delegation planning a pilgrimage to Syrian Druze holy sites;
-- it was related to religious discrimination against the Druze in Israel;
-- the 1951 Knesset Members Immunity, Rights and Duties Law explicitly permits foreign travel without a permit, except in time of war; it's to afford KMs unlimited freedom of movement independent of the executive branch;
-- invoking executive authority through the Interior Minister is illegal with regard to telling KMs where they may travel and with whom they may meet;
-- Druze clerics have been prevented from traveling and performing their religious duties; Naffaa's trip was to support religious freedom and oppose discrimination;
-- Jewish KMs haven't been indicted for making similar trips;
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