In Israel’s otherwise shaky democracy, the fundamental right to vote and to be elected has until now enjoyed an exalted status. Every Israeli citizen is entitled to vote in the elections and to run for Knesset. That sums up the simplistic understanding many of our elected officials have of the term “democracy” – a system of government in which the majority rules. They don’t simultaneously emphasize human rights.

Politicians have even used representation as an argument in their ongoing fight with the judicial branch over the latter’s right to overturn legislation: How can the justices, who aren’t elected and don’t “represent the people,” allow themselves to overrule legislative decisions that were made democratically by the people’s elected representatives?

The “Suspension Law” that the Knesset Constitution Committee gave preliminary approval to on Monday crosses a red line with regard to the status of the right to vote and to be elected. For the first time, Knesset members are granting themselves the right to oust one of their colleagues, at the end of a process in which they themselves judge whether his ideology is to their liking or not. Despite the bill’s name, we aren’t talking about mere suspension, which is already one of the sanctions the Knesset Ethics Committee is entitled to impose; the authority to “suspend” a Knesset member until the end of his term constitutes nothing less than an ouster.

The bill emits a McCarthyite stench. Its sponsors’ goals are clear and well known: to harass Arab Knesset members, who serve as a bridge between the Arab community and state agencies.

Having this sword of Damocles hover permanently over the heads of Arab MKs will have a chilling effect: They will refrain from expressing themselves freely or making full use of the rights conferred by their parliamentary immunity. The law might even spur the Arab community to refrain entirely from participating in the elections, thereby destroying another fundamental element of Israel’s representational democracy.

The fact that the bill is an amendment to the Basic Law on the Knesset, coupled with the Supreme Court’s current tendency to avoid conflict with the Knesset and cabinet insofar as possible, means there isn’t much hope of the court blocking this anti-democratic legislation. Thus the Knesset must find within itself those moderate voices who still see the right to vote and to be elected as a sacred and fundamental right – even when this right is given to a minority, and even when the words and actions of this minority’s elected representatives aren’t to the liking of the ruling majority.

A democratic system of government doesn’t collapse overnight. It is eroded from within by a series of steps that destroy its fundamental principles, until a critical mass has accumulated. The “Suspension Law” constitutes a direct blow to these principles. The Israeli legislature must refrain from taking such a destructive step.