Police to grill MKs Zahalka and Zoabi in Balad financing probe
Arab party says interrogation on Monday represents an ‘escalation in the political persecution’ against it
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The Israel Police is set to interrogate on Monday MKs Jamal Zahalka and Hanin Zoabi as part of an investigation into the funding of their prominent Arab political party Balad.
A report in the Haaretz daily Sunday morning said it wasn’t clear whether the two would be interrogated under caution as suspects.
According to the report, dozens of Balad activists are planning to protest outside the offices of the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit during the interrogation.
Police say they are investigating suspicions of fraud, money laundering, and illegal use of party funds.
They say Balad members are suspected 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 13-MK Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties in parliament.
It 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 party said in a statement that the interrogation of Zahalka and Zoabi would be “an escalation in the political persecution of the party.”
A total of 36 people have been arrested so far in connection with the investigation, including party officials and activists.
The Joint List holds 13 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, 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, the Knesset 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.
AFP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.