NAZARETH // Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this
week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by
the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their
political activities.
The warning came after Said Nafaa, a Druze member of the Israeli
parliament was stripped of his immunity last week, clearing the way for him to
be tried for a visit to Syria three years ago.
In recent weeks legal sanctions have been invoked against two
other Arab political leaders, following clashes with the Israeli security forces
at demonstrations against the occupation, and pressure is growing for two more
MPs to be investigated.
Arab politicians are particularly concerned about a bill
introduced last month requiring all parliamentary candidates to swear loyalty to
Israel as a Jewish state. If passed, the seats of the 10 Arab MPs belonging to
non-Zionist parties in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset, would be under
threat.
Jamal Zahalka, one of those MPs, said: “Every week either the
Knesset or the government try to impose new restrictions on our activities and
freedom of speech. There is a growing trend towards anti-democratic
legislation.”
Mr Nafaa, the latest target for legal action, was stripped of his
parliamentary immunity from prosecution last week by a Knesset committee
dominated by the right wing.
Keeping his immunity was his only hope of avoiding a trial after
he was indicted by the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, in December over a
visit he organised in 2007 to Syria, considered an enemy country.
The MP had arranged for a group of 280 Druze clerics to make
pilgrimage to Syria’s holy sites via Jordan after they had been repeatedly
refused a permit by the interior ministry. Mr Nafaa has argued that the clerics
were being denied their religious freedom.
Afu Aghbaria, an Arab MP, called the case
political persecution and asked the committee: “Do you think he organised an
espionage trip with 280 people?”
Mr Nafaa is also charged with contact with a foreign agent.
According to the testimony of one of his assistants, who was interrogated by the
Israeli secret police, the MP discussed the feud between Fatah and Hamas with
Talal Naji, a Syrian leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, and tried to meet Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas in Damascus.
Mr Nafaa, who denies meeting Mr Naji, maintains that his visit
was entirely political in nature and that the Knesset’s actions are designed to
prevent him from fulfilling the role he was elected for by the Arab minority,
one in five of Israel’s population.
Orna Kohn, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal
centre representing Mr Nafaa, said that, whereas the immunity of Jewish
legislators was removed in cases of corruption and serious criminal offences,
the revocation of immunity for political activities was “very rare” and appeared
to apply only to Arab MPs.
The last case was against Azmi Bishara, who was tried in 2001 on
two counts – for a visit to Syria and for alleged incitement during a speech –
both of which were rejected by the courts.
Arab MPs have avoided trips to much of the Arab world since the
so-called Bishara Law of 2008 granted the government powers to bar anyone who
makes an unauthorised visit to an enemy state from standing as a candidate.
In recent weeks other Arab politicians have found themselves in
trouble.
Last month Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, was
sentenced to nine months’ jail after being found guilty of spitting at a
policeman during clashes close to the al Aqsa mosque compound in 2007. Mr Salah,
who denied the charge, said he was the victim of concerted efforts to prevent
Muslims from protecting the holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Another Arab leader, Mohammed Barakeh, head of the Communist
party in the Knesset, is due to stand trial on four counts of assault against
security officials during demonstrations over a four-year period.
Ms Kohn, who also represents Mr Barakeh, said the MP had attended
hundreds of demonstrations at which he mediated between protesters and security
forces.
“Often soldiers turn violent against the demonstrators and in
some cases Mr Barakeh was assaulted. In such circumstances it is easier for
soldiers to accuse Mr Barakeh of being violent than risk being accused
themselves.”
She said the decision to indict Mr Barakeh was an attempt to
“criminalise” his political role and reflected an “escalation” in using the law
against Arab politicians.
The spate of indictments prompted Mohammed Zeidan, head of the
Higher Follow-Up Committee, the main political body for the Arab minority, to
complain last month of “ongoing attacks” on the Arab leadership.
At Mr Nafaa’s immunity hearing, Anastasia Michaeli, a committee
member and member of the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right Yisrael
Beiteinu party, said she would introduce a bill to revoke the citizenship of
anyone visiting an enemy state and deport them to that country.
Colleagues in her party have already initiated legislation that
would require MPs to swear allegiance to Israel as a “Jewish, Zionist and
democratic state”. Currently the pledge refers only to loyalty to “the state of
Israel”.
Mr Zahalka, leader of the National Democratic Assembly party,
said: “Imagine the outcry if a Jewish representative in the US or Britain was
expected to swear loyalty to his country as a Christian state.”
Mr Zahalka was himself accused of incitement after commenting on
Israeli TV in December that Ehud Barak, the defence minister, listened to
classical music while children were killed in Gaza. On air, Dan Margalit, the
host, called Mr Zahalka “impertinent” and ordered him to leave the studio.
Danny Danon, of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, subsequently
initiated a bill to bar from the Knesset any MP found to have incited against
the state.
There have also been demands for another MP, Taleb al Sanaa, of
the United Arab List party, to be investigated after he used his cellphone to
allow Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, to address a group of
demonstrators on the first anniversary of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Yitzhak Aharonivitch, the public security minister, was among
those calling for Mr al Sanaa’s indictment.
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