
The gag order imposed on media reporting of the Shin Bet treason case against Azmi Bishara has been lifted. Unfortunately, we don’t know much more now than we did before. But at least it has freed Bishara from enough constraints that he has published a sharp rebuttal to the charges (as much as they are known) in the L.A. Times.
Haaretz has reported the case based on anonymous security sources giving their view of the charges. A dubious proposition journalistically, but that seems to be how Israeli media operates giving (too) wide latitude toward government sources. It also would be nice to see a whole lot more “alleges” in this dispatch since otherwise we’re to assume we should accept the Shin Bet’s allegations as truth. Here is what those sources report:
The police and Shin Bet have sufficient evidence to indict former MK Azmi Bishara for crimes such as contact with the enemy, say sources who have seen the evidence in recent weeks.
The sources say it will be very difficult for Bishara to refute the evidence, even if he appears in person to participate in police interviews.
…Most of the allegations involve contact with Hezbollah intelligence agencies, which the police and the Shin Bet say were responsible for collecting intelligence on Israel during the Second Lebanon War. The bulk of the evidence is based on wire taps of Bishara’s telephone conversations with Hezbollah agents. These recordings were authorized by the Supreme Court.
The evidence also suggests that Bishara assisted Hezbollah in broadening the impact of its attacks on Israel by helping direct its rocket barrages and offering recommendations on how to carry out psychological warfare against Israelis. Bishara is also suspected of transferring to Hezbollah military information, but the military censor has imposed a gag order on that information.
In addition to the evidence suggesting that Bishara’s activities were tantamount to treason, investigators are working on an angle involving financial violations.
The investigators are trying to connect evidence to suspicions that Bishara violated the law forbidding the funding of terrorism. The evidence is based on the testimony of a family of Jerusalem-based money changers who say they have delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Bishara’s home in Beit Hanina. The funds have also not been declared to the tax authorities as required by law.
The investigators have so far been unable to trace the money and are not sure whether Bishara kept the funds or distributed them to other organizations. The police are considering initiating an investigation in a number of countries where the funds are known to have originated or passed through.
I’m glad to say that no U.S. publication, especially after the misinformation it’s been fed by the Bush Administration for the past six years, would ever report a story like this.
So what do we have? The spooks claim they have enough evidence to indict. They claim, without providing any evidence, that he had contact with Hezbollah agents. What’s a real stunner is that Bishara, if the Shin Bet is to be believed, was a sort of civilian “spotter” who phoned in coordinates to the Hezbollah gunners to improve the aim of their rockets and kill more of his fellow Arabs (who suffered high casualties during these barrages). As for “transferring military information,” do you think one of the most mistrusted members of the Israeli Knesset would be trusted with ANYTHING in the way of “military information.” As for “offering recommendations on how to carry out psychological warfare against Israelis,” we’ll just have to see precisely what that means in terms of real actions rather than just allegations.
All of this of course is nothing new for Bishara since the intelligence agency has been after him for years. But what is new is the corruption allegation. They believe he received several hundred thousand dollars from foreign sources. They can’t determine whether he distributed them to Arab political organizations or kept it himself and they can’t determine where he got the money. Sounds like a slam dunk to me.
All the rest is bunk. The treason angle is bunk as far as I’m concerned. Mere ventilating for the sake of the right-wing Israeli constituency which wants Bishara’s hide; and an effort to intimidate Bishara and his movement into scaling back their nationalist demands and aspirations. The Shin Bet recently announced that Israeli Arab nationalism was a grave threat to Israel and that would do everything in its power (and that covers a lot of ground both legal and not when an Israeli intelligence agency makes such a statement) to defeat such an effort whether or not it was pursued legally. When the security services of a democratic nation publicly declare that they will defeat a domestic political movement which is adhering to the rules of that democracy–is that nation still a true democracy??
It’s only fair, since Haaretz in this article basically allowed itself to be a mouthpiece of the Shin Bet, to air Bishara’s rebuttal in his first major article in a U.S. publication since the charges began to fly. He begins with a very apt historical comparison of his own predicament to the Dreyfuss Affair:
in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair — in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state — the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s failed war against Lebanon in July.
The reason it is an apt comparison is that Dreyfuss too was a public official (an army officer) and member of a despised minority (a Jew in France) accused of treason. The charges against Dreyfuss were trumped up by anti-Semitic army officers who wished to cover up malfeasance by themselves and others.
Of course, we only know of Dreyfuss’ innocence now. In the moment, I’m sure Dreyfuss and his actions may’ve looked as suspect as Bishara’s do to some Israelis. We will only discover the truth or falsehood of the charges against Bishara in the course of time. Perhaps the Bishara case will not turn out to be as black and white as Dreyfuss was. Or perhaps it will.
Here Bishara responds to some of the basic charges against him:
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone — a journalist or a personal friend — can be defined as a “foreign agent” by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah — Israel’s enemy in Lebanon — has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What’s more, unlike those in Israel’s parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speeches.
Here Bishara provides a lesson in the history of Arabs in Israel:
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villages.
Today we make up 20% of Israel’s population…But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty — Israel’s “Bill of Rights” — defines the state as “Jewish” rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Here is the crux of the threat that Bishara poses to Israel and the reason why he drives the security apparatus crazy:
I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
In other words, just as Israeli Jews have ties to their brethren near and far, so too Israeli Arabs have family, cultural and super-national ties to their brethren living in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. If Israeli Jews maintain solidarity with me here in Seattle, WA–why can’t Bishara maintain solidarity with Arabs of neighboring countries?
This expression of solidarity clearly threatens Israeli Jews and the government. But if we look back on our own history, we find that the 19th century was full of anti-Catholic bigotry which posited that immigrant Catholics owed a greater allegiance to Rome than to America. And what is the dual loyalty canard raised against American Jews but another form of this.
If all Bishara did in these alleged conversations was what he says he did here (“asserted the right of the Lebanese…and Palestinians…to resist Israel’s occupation”) then he has done nothing legally actionable.
In this concluding section, the Arab politician lays out the history of persecution he has suffered at the hands of the Israeli justice system and places it in the context of the Arab nationalist struggle:
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in elections — all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman — an immigrant from Moldova — declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel “have no place here,” that we should “take our bundles and get lost.” After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my execution.
The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being severed from our natural connections to the Arab world…If we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.
Before one accepts the load of malarkey about treason and indictable offenses in the Haaretz article one ought to ponder the cogency and power of this message. In Azmi Bishara, Israeli Jews have found a worthy adversary, one who will challenge them “where they live.” People may hate this man. They may find him an odious charlatan. But in a way he is the mirror image of Israeli Jews and their attitudes toward their fellow Arabs. Bishara seems to be saying: “if you hate my people I will become an adversary worthy of that hatred.” The Israeli majority, in its smugness and racist notions of Arab inferiority, has found a leader who reflects back at them their intolerance. So, yes, Bishara may be a demagogue. He may be a hot-headed, egotistical show-boater. He may incite Arab anger and even hatred against the State. But what do Jews expect? Have they met their Arab fellow citizens anywhere near halfway?
I hear echoes of Martin Luther King’s FBI harassment in Bishara’s invocation of the American civil rights movement in this passage:
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy.
As I wrote above, whatever this man’s weaknesses, this paragraph in particular makes clear Bishara’s ability to invoke references to his audience’s own political history and experience in order to draw them closer to his own. A worthy adversary and one to be reckoned with.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for calling Bishara’s article to my attention. I would otherwise have missed it. Do you recall some articles in Haaretz not too long ago about the Shin Bet having discussed with PM’s office the fact that they were prepared (or acting) to stop any challenges to the Jewish nature of the state EVEN if these challenges were made along legal lines? This could be an example of that policy although I can’t find the articles I believe I recall.
Be well.
It’s absolutely part & parcel of this policy. A direct outgrowth. I & a few other analysts have noted this connection. I’ve linked to that Haaretz article in one of my earlier Bishara posts. If you’d like the link write here or send me an e mail & I’ll look for it.
I’ll expand.
Dreyfus was a French patriot and artillary officer who was wrongly accused of spying. He was exonerated. After serving several years in prison he returned to the army and served for the French in WWI. Dreyfus was Jewish by birth but he wasn’t a Jewish nationalist or seperastist. Ironically, his grandchild was deported by the Vichy government to a Nazi concentration camps.
Bishara is no Israeli patriot. He would never serve in it’s army. It is presently irrelevant if Israel’s army wants or whether he should feel patriotic. He is Palestinian nationalist.
He was interogated for contacts and perhaps money he received from enemy agents. The interogation was closely scrutinized by the attorney general and reviewed every three months by the supreme court. Since the interogation is so closely followed by these non shin bet institutions, the comments by Diskin are not relevant.
Bishara is innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunatley he has decided to flee the country in the middle of the investigation. This was his choice. Nobody “hounded” him into exile. As for ther specific activities he is suspected of doing, I wouldn’t pay to much attention to newspaper reports quoting unnamed sources. If he ever returns to Israel (which I doubt) and the investigation is completed, the attorney general will decide if a case can be made against him. Apparently, Bishara thinks a case can be made against him, otherwise he wouldn’t have fled.
I don’t recall Bishara ever fighting for civil rights. He fights for national rights. In this sense he reminds me more of Farakhan than MLK.
And another piece of trivia: Bishara’s father was a communist, and towing the party line, supported the UN partition plan of Palestine. For this he was sentenced to death in Iraq (in his absence, I presume).
As usual, you’ve focussed on an argument I didn’t make. I never said Bishara was a military hero nor did I intend to compare him to Dreyfuss in that way. Just because he hasn’t served in an Israeli military which would’ve have him anyway doesn’t detract from his Israeliness.
But many Israeli citizens consider him an Israeli patriot and I predict that in time, if the nationalist divide between Jews and Arabs is ever worked out (& I believe it will) Bishara will come to be seen as the father or one of the father’s of his ethnic group & hence an Israeli patriot.
Which means precisely very little. The AG & Supreme Court are notoriously lenient in allowing the skirting of rules by intelligence agencies esp. when alleged national security issues arise. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out that something like this has happened in this case.
Oh, you don’t think an intelligence agent telling you you may be brought up on charges which could cost you your life can be described as “hounding?”
You live in a bizarro world. A Jew who fights for Jewish national rights is fighting for human (i.e. civil) rights. An Arab who fights for Arab national rights is no less a fighter for civil rights.
As for Bishara’s father, I’d phrase the irony of this entirely differently. He was a Communist who supported the creation of the Jewish state. Now, that same Jewish state wants potentially to execute his son for treason.
I’ll give an example. An Arab fighting for civil rights will demand that Arab pupils and Jewish pupils receive equal funding and that the curriculum (identical for both pupils and created with Jewish and Arab input) reflect the diverse nature of Israeli society, I can support this. The Arab nationalists want the Arab schools to be independant and the curriculum decided by Arabs only without interference from the Jewish. This I do not support.
That sounds fine to me. I’m not much in favor of segregated learning. But let me ask you this. I assume there are religious public schools in Israel. Do Arabs have any input into the curriculum of these schools? I highly doubt it. Isn’t it a bit hypocritical for Arabs to have no input into Jewish religious public schools while Jews want input into the curriculum in Arab schools?
I’m generally in favor of equal opportunity, equal treatment & equal funding for both groups. I’m not keen on schools which separate groups or encourage segregation or chauvinism. But personally I’m not that strongly opposed to it either. Jewish schools are essentially segregated anyway since most Jewish students will hardly ever see an Arab student. Personally, I wish there was real intergration in which all Jews had to study with some Arabs & vice versa. That would be socially & culturally very tense & stressful, but it should happen nevertheless.
Can you back this up with some facts. The Israeli supreme court is widely respected in the world.
No one in their right mind thinks that Bishara will be executed. And as far as medical treatment in Israeli jails, you have no evidence to support your claim in a previous thread that it is inadequate. If you have some, you should present it. Anyway your argument that this represents “hounding” is applicable to any suspected criminal.
And now for some compare and contrast: Savri Rezawei, 26 years old, was picked up by goons from the al Aksa Martyrs Brigade (those would be Fatah Abu Mazen affiliated goons). He “confessed” to collaborating with Israel and was immediately executed. That was three days ago. No courts, no lawyers no interviews with al-jazeera and no one cares. No results for his name on a google blog search. That’s all. And please, don’t even try to comparing this to targeted killing by the IDF in theterritories, since Savri was a Palestinian (one oftheir own) and they had him in custody.
As far as Israel’s public schools goes, I don’t know how the curriculum is decided. I, myself, have no objection that the same committee (with both Arabs and Jews in it) make the curriculum for ALL public schools including religious schools. That means Arabs (professioanal) educators would make a contribution for policies in Jewish religious schools. If everyone acts in good faith, I see no problem.
The Supreme Court has for years entirely ducked a major case brought by Israeli human rights groups charging the IDF with war crimes. It has used every legal tool to deny & delay for years hearing & ruling on the case. It’s laughable. Second, it’s not just that the Supreme Court has temporized over many issues related to national security & human rights, but the decisions it does make are routinely violated by the IDF & security services:
The IDF has also ignored a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting it fr. using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Ynetnews featured a video of an actual IDF violation in the field. What good is a Supreme Court is its ruling are ignored?
Do you mean to tell me that you believe that the Israeli prison system is medically prepared to treat a prisoner who has had a kidney transplant including providing dialysis treatment & other advanced emergency treatment that might be required including provision of proper medications & medical consultations w. specialists as needed? If you were an Israeli prisoner with such a condition would you feel confident you would be properly treated??
I’m glad to hear that we agree on something. However, you & I both know that most rightists & all haredi Jews would object vehemently to Arabs having any say in a religious school curriculum.
Thanks Richard. After some digging aorund on your great blog I found the reference. Hey now that your blog is one of the more authorative maybe you should contact Haaretz about finally getting their archiving and retrieval possibilities up to snuff. It is one of the most broadly quoted and referenced Israeli newspapers in the blogosphere yet after a few days none of their great content is findable.
Be well. Lennybruce
What the IDF and Shin Bet do is a reflection of the IDF and Shin Bet, not the supreme court.
Yes, I believe that Israeli prisons could cope with a guy like Bishara medically. No problem whatsoever. Israeli prisons utilize the experts, clinics, and emergency rooms of Israel’s hospitals when necessary.
Sheik Ahmad Yassin spent many years in prison in spite of chronic illnesses.
Bishara is suspected of betraying the country in spite of the fact that his father risked his life supporting its creation. The same country which supported the medical institution Hadasah where his life was saved with a kidney transplant. Hey Azmi, if you hate Israel so much, why don’t you give back your kidney.
This is a craven & offensive comment. Medical care should be provided w/o regard to political affiliation or ethnic origin. If you don’t share that view then I’d invite you to either keep yr trap shut on that subject or move on to somewhere where people like that sort of snark.
Besides he loves Israel. He just envisions a diff. Israel than you do.
“Medical care should be provided w/o regard to political affiliation or ethnic origin.” – Agreed
Not true. The IDF & Shin Bet do whatever they think they can get away with. They violate Supreme Court rulings with impunity. Even when they are filmed doing it they face no judicial sanctions. That is unfortunately a toothless Supreme Court. If it were the U.S. there would be an injunction slapped on the military faster than they could say “human shield.”
I am not saying the Supreme Court is useless. When it does rule is often does so in helpful & constructive ways. But it is often honored in the breach if at all.