Just one day after appealing the Zoabi Bill, which would make it possible to dismiss MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) from the Knesset, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday cancelled her appeal.

The appeal prevented the bill from being brought to a vote in the Knesset, and a Knesset plenum discussion of the bill that was scheduled for Wednesday had been postponed.

It is believed that Livni retracted her appeal because officials in the Likud party made clear to her that if she prevents the vote in the Knesset, the bill will be discussed in the Coalition where it would receive almost overwhelming support from government ministers. Livni likely preferred to keep the decision in the hands of the entire Knesset.

The bill would make it possible for a 61-member majority in the Knesset to permanently dismiss an MK who expressed support for a terror organization or for a state that takes belligerent action against Israel. Before such a vote is held, the Knesset’s House Committee would have to vote to recommend the impeachment.

In the case of an MK “who, during a time of war or a warlike operation against an enemy state of terror group, published praise for armed struggle against the state of Israel,” the bill states, “his term of office in the Knesset will end on the day in which the Knesset decides by a majority of its members and with the recommendation of the House Committee, that the statement he published constituted support [for the enemy’s action] as defined above.”

The bill was presented by MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu) and was signed by 27 other MKs, including Hilik Bar (Labor), Rina Frenkel (Yesh Atid), David Tzur (Hatnua) and MKs from Shas, UTJ, Likud and Jewish Home.

Following Livni’s actions to torpedo the vote, MK Danny Danon attacked her in the plenum, asking, “Tzipi Livni, have you decided to serve as the devil’s advocate?”

“Tzipi Livni, I can’t believe how low you’ve sunk,” Danon declaimed. “You, who were raised in a revisionist home, who were a part of the Herut and Likud movement – you are serving in the government and Knesset as the advocate for the enemy of the people, the supporter of terrorists, the supporter of Israel’s most criminal enemies?”

Zoabi took part in the Mavi Marmara terror flotilla in 2010, and recently called the IDF soldiers who boarded the Marara “murderers.” She is infamous for provocative speeches, including one in which she said that Israel has “no right to a normal life” and a later address claiming that “the Israeli occupation” was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria.

More recently, Zoabi wrote an article encouraging Hamas on the terror group’s website, and was briefly handcuffed during violent pro-Palestinian protests in Haifa.  

Before the latest national election, the Central Elections Committee banned Zoabi from running for the Knesset, under a clause requiring candidates and parties not to work against Israel’s character as a Jewish, democratic state. However, the Supreme Court later overturned the decision and allowed Zoabi to run.