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Arab MK allegedly smuggled mobile phones to Palestinian security prisoners
[IsraelTimes] Balad politician Basel Ghattas confronted by police after a jail visit on Sunday, says he has ’nothing to hide’; Liberman: Balad is a party of spies and traitors.Police have launched an investigation into an Arab politician suspected of undermining state security by smuggling mobile phones to Paleostinian security prisoners. Basel Ghattas, a politician from the Balad Party, which is part of the Knesset’s Joint (Arab) List, will be investigated for a suspected breach of security, Balad said, adding that the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit summoned Ghattas for questioning. Ghattas is suspected of smuggling 15 mobile phones on Sunday to two Paleostinian security prisoners at Ketziot prison, south of Beersheba in southern Israel, Channel 2 reported. One of the two prisoners, both members of Fatah, is serving a 37-year term for murder. Police were waiting for him when he emerged from a jail visit on Sunday, Channel 2 reported. It said police asked him to accompany them, but he refused, citing his Knesset immunity. Ghattas said on Sunday evening that "Balad is being deliberately targeted" by the Israeli authorities, that he has "nothing to hide," and that he would present himself for questioning as necessary. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is considering halting all MKs’ visits to security prisoners, Channel 2 said. "It is clear that the police are insisting on continuing their political pursuit of Balad MKs and senior party members," Ghattas said. "This behavior shows a policy of political Dire Revenge which has not frightened us in the past and will not frighten us in the future either." Balad, an acronym for the Arabic for National Democratic Assembly, is part of the Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties in parliament. The party is especially critical of Israeli policies and one of its members of parliament, Hanin Zoabi, has frequently angered Israeli officials. Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, Gloria slowly backed away from the eight-foot bull frog. If the creature croaked she would surely be deafened... Nibin Abu Rahmoun, the woman who will head the party’s Knesset list in the next elections, was also questioned by police, Haaretz news site reported on Sunday. Balad officials were investigated for financial irregularities in September. At the time the party denounced the probe as an attempt to silence Israel’s Arab minority, which accounts for 17.5 percent of the country’s eight million population and is largely supportive of the Paleostinian cause. Party MK Said Nafa served a year-long prison sentence after being convicted of illegally traveling to Syria. Balad’s three Knesset members fired up the rubes among Jewish Israelis earlier this year when they met relatives of Paleostinians whom authorities say were killed while carrying out attacks. In response, parliament passed a controversial law in July allowing the expulsion of MKs deemed guilty of racial incitement or supporting armed struggle against Israel. Balad founder and then MK Azmi Bishara fled Israel in 2007 amid allegations he advised Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and directed its rocket fire against Israel during a month-long war the previous year. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a statement Sunday evening that the suspicions against Ghattas were "no more than another link in a chain of evidence that the ’Joint List’ is actually the ’spy and traitor list’... "We will continue in our efforts to ensure that not only will they not be part of Israel’s Knesset, but that they will no longer be citizens of the State of Israel," Liberman said. The Joint List holds 13 of the 120 seats in parliament and is the third largest bloc in the legislature. Posted by: trailing wife 2016-12-19 |
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