Knesset suspends 3 Palestinian MKs over visit to attackers' families

Three Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset were suspended from their duties on Monday evening after a visit to the families of Palestinian attackers last week sparked a political furor.

The Knesset's Ethics Committee suspended Palestinian MKs Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas from plenary sessions and committee hearings for a period of four months and MK Jamal Zahalka for two months, according to a Knesset statement.

It added that the three lawmakers -- all members of the Joint Arab List -- would still be able to vote in the plenum and in committees.

Their suspension comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally led efforts to have them ousted.

Israeli activist group Gush Shalom (The Peace Bloc) has condemned Netanyahu's "demagogic campaign against the Arab Knesset Members."

The group said that MKs Zoabi, Zahalka, and Ghattas visited the families of Palestinian attackers in a bid to challenge Israel's controversial policy of holding the bodies of Palestinians shot dead after carrying out attacks on Israelis.

It said the visits were made with "a very specific and openly declared aim: to resolve a difficult humanitarian problem -- namely, the government policy of holding onto the bodies of killed Palestinians and refusing to return them to their families for burial."

The push against the Palestinian MKs has laid bare a deep rift in Israeli society, in which rights groups say Palestinians -- constituting a fifth of Israel's population -- have faced systematic exclusion for decades.