The Hindu : International : Ex-Israeli Arab MP suspected of helping enemy

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Friday, Apr 27, 2007
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Ex-Israeli Arab MP suspected of helping enemy

Rory McCarthy

The case has polarised debate about Israel's minority Arab community

Jerusalem: One of Israel's most outspoken Arab politicians, who has left the country and resigned as an MP, is being investigated on suspicion of helping an enemy during war, Israeli police have said.

Azmi Bishara was questioned twice by police before he left Israel a month ago. In Cairo this week, he resigned his position as a member of the Knesset, Israeli Parliament. A court order preventing any mention of the investigation was partially lifted on Wednesday.

Police said Mr. Bishara, a Christian born in Nazareth, is suspected of several crimes, including passing information to an enemy, contacting foreign agents and receiving large amounts of money from abroad.

Some of the accusations cover last year's 34-day war in Lebanon.

The case has polarised debate within Israel about the minority Arab community, who make up 20 per cent of the population and have full citizenship and voting rights but who suffer routine discrimination.

Mr. Bishara, who led the Balad party and had been an MP for 11 years, incurred the wrath of several prominent politicians when he travelled to Syria and Lebanon in the weeks after last year's war. He has also called for Palestinians to be given full citizenship in a bi-national state of Arabs and Jews. In 2001, after an earlier trip to Syria, he was charged with incitement to violence and supporting Hizbullah, but the Supreme Court later dismissed the charges and restored his parliamentary immunity.

In recent weeks, the Israeli press has accused Mr. Bishara of disloyalty. ``Each of his tirades only further serves to stigmatise Israel's Arab citizens as fifth columnists,'' said the Jerusalem Post in an editorial on April 11.

Mr. Bishara (50) denied any crime and said he had not had direct contact with Hizbullah. ``The aim is to convene a court to turn Bishara into a petty criminal facing security violations,'' he told the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera in Doha. —

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