Incoming Jewish congressmen urge Israel to release Arab journalist detained after interviewing fugitive former MK

Three incoming Jewish members of Congress have written to Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, calling on Jerusalem to release a prominent Arab journalist who was detained after conducting an interview with fugitive former Balad MK Azmi Bishara.

“According to press reports, some fifteen masked Israel Police and Shin Bet officers entered Mr. [Abed] Abu Shehadeh’s home late Tuesday, searched it, and took him into custody. On Wednesday, a court extended his detention through Sunday on suspicion of ‘contact with a foreign agent,’ after reviewing secret evidence that has not been shared with his attorneys,” incoming Reps. Brad Lander, Steve Weiner and Daniel Biss write.

“The allegations against him remain sealed. Lawyers from Adalah who represented him in court this week report that interrogators questioned him about a single subject: a podcast interview he recently conducted with Azmi Bishara, a public figure whom Mr. Abu Shehadeh had interviewed before, without any warning from the authorities,” they continue.

Bishara fled Israel in 2007 amid suspicions he aided Hezbollah in the previous year’s Lebanon war.

“Interviewing political figures including controversial ones is the core work of journalism in a free society. Detaining a reporter for conducting an interview is the kind of act that representatives in democracies rightly condemn when governments commit it,” the incoming Congressmen write.

“The timing of this detention compounds our concern. Mr. Abu Shehadeh’s arrest came amid reported efforts by senior Israeli officials to cast doubt on the participation of Palestinian citizens in Israel’s recent general election, in which Palestinian-led parties won a historic number of seats, and as Israel’s Central Elections Committee certified those results,” the letter states.

The lawmakers note that some of Lander’s future constituents met with Shehadeh and “found him to be a thoughtful voice and a devoted father, someone fully committed to nonviolence and co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis.”

Last Tuesday night, as we awaited election returns, fifteen masked Israel Police and Shin Bet officers entered the home of journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and took him into custody.

Today, I joined fellow incoming Congressmembers @DanielBiss &… pic.twitter.com/bpckm79gNH

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) November 6, 2026