Israeli police arrest former Palestinian member of parliament Haneen Zoabi
Israeli police arrested Palestinian politician and former member of the Israeli parliament Haneen Zoabi on Sunday.
Police officers detained her at her home in Nazareth in the early hours of Sunday “on suspicion of incitement to terrorism”.
Her attorney, Hassan Jabareen, director of the Adalah legal centre, denounced the arrest, saying it lacked any legal basis or substantive justification and was carried out for “political and media purposes”.
According to police, the former member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, and leader of the Palestinian party Balad was detained in relation to statements she made "during a speech at an anti-Israel conference abroad".
During an event in Vienna in October 2024, Zoabi said: “You can not differentiate between Hamas and the Palestinian people.”
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She added that those who entered Israel on 7 October 2023 “entered their own land”.
Sami Abu Shehadeh, the current leader of the Balad party, said Zoabi's remarks were taken out of context.
Ongoing persecution
He said Zoabi's arrest is part of ongoing political persecution against Palestinian citizens of Israel, which intensified in a "terrifying" way after 7 October 2023.
"Israeli authorities have detained dozens, arrested and placed them under administrative detention, which we call kidnapping," he told Middle East Eye, referring to the arrest without charge or trial.
'Israeli authorities have detained dozens, arrested and placed them under administrative detention, which we call kidnapping'
- Sami Abu Shehadeh, Balad party leader
The Israeli "Netanyahu–Ben Gvir government" aims to carry out genocide in Gaza "quietly", he said, by silencing any political activist or figures who speak out against it.
"This video [of Zoabi’s speech] has been out for a while and didn’t make waves. But it seems [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben Gvir needed fresh headlines, so the issue was stirred up again in the media before the arrest," Abu Shehadeh said.
"This far-right government has its arms and tools in the media and the judiciary. It is everywhere in the state."
Jabareen said that there was no justification for raiding her home during the arrest as the suspicions related to a speech delivered more than a year earlier.
The circumstances of the arrest and the way police documented it indicate political motives, he added.
“Under these circumstances, the police could have acted according to the law and summoned former MK Zoabi for questioning, but instead chose to use forceful means to satisfy Minister Itamar Ben Gvir,” Jabareen said in a statement.
“The procedures taken lack legal credibility, as there was no concern of obstruction of the investigation during the time that has passed."
He noted that Zoabi was currently under investigation, after which further legal steps will be determined in her case.
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