The Knesset Constitution and Law Committee began debating the "suspension law" this week, which is aimed at banning from parliament MKs who express support for terrorist acts.

The controversial law was proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of a public furore that followed the meeting earlier this month between three Israeli-Arab MKs and relatives of Palestinians who were killed while attacking Israelis.

The MKs, members of the Balad Arab nationalist party, claimed that the meeting was to co-ordinate the release of the bodies to their families and not intended as support of their actions.

The opposition is blaming Mr Netanyahu for using "anti-democratic" measures and seeking to disenfranchise Israeli-Arab citizens.

President Reuven Rivlin, a member of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, has also criticised the law, saying that it "sins against the meaning of the Knesset, which represents the sovereign and is not the sovereign itself. It sins against the voting public." Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein also opposed the law initially but eventually acquiesced to the prime minister.

The law sins against the meaning of the Knesset

Mr Netanyahu argues that the law is required to safeguard Israel's security and democracy and is in line with similar legislation in Western democracies.

"It's interesting that procedures and powers that exist in other democracies are considered anti-democratic when adopted in Israel," he said on Sunday. "We won't be deterred and we'll pass this as it's elementary. When MKs stand to attention for murderers of children, we will act as they would certainly do in Britain, Canada and the United States."

It is still unclear, however, whether he has the necessary majority within the coalition to pass the law, which would require three quarters of the Knesset to authorise a suspension. It is also likely that the Supreme Court would rule such a law unconstitutional.