Jailed Arab ex-MK barred from rehabilitation program over alleged terror ties
Basel Ghattas, seeking to shorten his 2-year sentence for smuggling phones to terror convicts, denies claim and says he was never even informed of such an accusation
Michael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
The Beersheba District Court on Wednesday rejected a bid by an imprisoned Arab-Israeli ex-lawmaker to enroll in a rehabilitation process in jail, accepting the state’s assertion that Basel Ghattas was a member of a terror group — a claim Ghattas asserted he had never been made aware of.
Ghattas, a former Knesset member for the Joint List alliance of Arab parties, was convicted in April 2017 of exploiting his position to smuggle cellphones and notes to Palestinian terror convicts in Israeli prisons.
Now serving a two-year prison sentence at Gilboa Prison, Ghattas was denied early release in November when a parole board ruled that he hadn’t expressed adequate remorse for his crimes and hadn’t made efforts to undergo a rehabilitation process in prison.
He subsequently appealed to gain access to a rehabilitation program that could boost his chances of being granted early release in the future. But he was then told he was not eligible for such a program, since he is classified as a security prisoner affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.
Ghattas and his attorney, Abeer Baker, vehemently denied the accusation and argued that not only has he never belonged to PFLP — authorities had never before informed him that he was regarded as a PFLP prisoner.
The Prisons Service representative claimed that Ghattas was informed of his status as affiliated to the PFLP upon beginning his prison term.
The court accepted the Prisons Service position and ruled against Ghattas’s appeal. His lawyer said they would now appeal to the state to have his status changed.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan praised the ruling, saying that “as far as I’m concerned, the term ‘rehabilitation’ doesn’t exist in relation to terrorists, and there is no treatment program for anyone who supports an ideology of murder and attacks against Jews and who rejects the right of the Jewish people to have a state.”
Ghattas came under criminal investigation after being caught on prison surveillance video passing envelopes to Palestinian security prisoners in December 2016.
Police said that the MK exploited his position as a member of Knesset — who cannot be subjected to a body search — during a visit to Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, where he met with Walid Daka, a Palestinian prisoner serving a 37-year sentence for the 1984 abduction and murder of 19-year-old IDF soldier Moshe Tamam. Ghattas also met with Basel Ben Sulieman Bezre, who is serving a 15-year sentence on a terror conviction.
Daka was a member of PFLP when he committed his attack.
The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court accepted a plea bargain reached between state prosecutors and Ghattas, handing down a two-year prison term as well as 18 months’ probation and a NIS 120,000 ($33,000) fine.
The court also convicted Ghattas of moral turpitude, meaning he will be barred from serving in the Knesset for seven years after completing his sentence.
As he began his jail term in July 2017, Ghattas made it clear he wasn’t sorry for his offense.
“I walk into jail with my head held high,” he told supporters before entering the prison. “I acted for humanitarian reasons on behalf of the prisoners… I will continue to fight for prisoners’ rights.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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