Police arrest 13 more in financing probe of Arab party

Balad charges investigation into fraud, money laundering and illegal use of party funds is an ‘attempt to silence Israel’s Arabs’

By AFP 21 September 2016, 7:48 pm

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Joint (Arab) List Knesset members Jamal Zahalka (L), Hanin Zoabi (R), Basel Ghattas (2R) and Ayman Odeh (C) at the weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, February 8, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel Police said Wednesday they had detained 13 more people as part of an investigation into a prominent Arab political party’s financing.

A total of 36 people have now been arrested in connection with the investigation into the financing of the Balad party.

Those arrested have included party officials and activists.

Balad has 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 Palestinian cause.

“The arrests aim to intimidate and scare, nothing else,” it said in a statement.

Balad is especially critical of Israeli policies and one of its members of parliament, Hanin Zoabi, has frequently angered Israeli officials.

Joint List party member Hanin Zoabi is removed by Knesset security during her speech at a plenum session in the Knesset on February 8, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90) — Joint (Arab) List party member Hanin Zoabi is removed by Knesset security during her speech at a plenum session in the Knesset on February 8, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Police said they were investigating suspicions of fraud, money laundering, and illegal use of party funds.

They have said that Balad members were accused of creating a mechanism that for years misrepresented “the origin of millions of shekels” obtained from within Israel and abroad.

Authorities did not provide further information on the alleged sources of the financing.

Balad, an acronym for National Democratic Assembly, is part of the Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties in parliament.

The Joint List holds 13 of the 120 seats in parliament, of which three are held by Balad, and is the third largest bloc in the legislature.

Balad’s three Knesset members triggered outrage among Jewish Israelis earlier this year when they met relatives of Palestinians who 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.

Analysts have said the law will be extremely difficult to put into practice as any expulsion would require the support of 90 of the 120 MKs.

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.