Palestinian journalist arrested by Shin Bet over terror ties

Israel’s Shin Bet security service on Monday accuses a Palestinian journalist arrested at the weekend of belonging to a terror group after colleagues called for international support for his release.

Omar Nazzal, a member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), was detained by Israeli officials on Saturday at the border between the West Bank and Jordan.

He was seeking to travel to a meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in Bosnia.

The Shin Bet service said in response to an AFP query that he had been recently appointed a director of Palestine Today, a TV channel it declared illegal in February, and was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — a leftist political party Israel accuses of terrorism.

“Omar has for years been known to be a Popular Front activist: he was arrested now because of his involvement in current Popular Front activities,” Shin Bet says in a written reply.

It said he was not detained because of his journalism but over “his involvement in terror group activities.”

The PJS called on Sunday for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene in Nazzal’s case.

The Palestine Today offices in Ramallah were raided in March by soldiers after Israel accused it of incitement.

— AFP, Times of Israel staff