Arab knesset member secretly gives phones to Hamas terrorists in Israel prison

[Dan193]

Arab Joint List MK Basel Ghattas was accused of smuggling phones to jailed Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails:

https://anneinpt.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/a-traitor-in-our-knesset/#comment-27643
A traitor in our Knesset
Posted on 20 December 2016 by anneinpt

I use the word “traitors” very carefully because of the terrible implications and potential consequences. As I wrote in a similar post back in 2012:

One has to be very careful about accusing others of dual loyalty since that is a favourite demonizing tool used by anti-Semites against the Jews in other countries, but it is very hard to avoid such an accusation against some of the Arab MKs who sit in our Knesset and apparently consort with Israel’s most sworn and murderous enemies, the Hamas terrorist group.

Again, I want to stress that I do not use this word for people who have different political opinions to me, even those, like the Left, whose politics I consider dangerous for our country. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m sure there are those who consider my own opinions as dangerous.

But I do use this term for people who give aid, succour and support to terrorists. One such person is Hanin Zoabi who, as I mentioned above, participated in the Mavi Marmara flotilla, and has continued to support Hamas in various forms.

And this week another MK earned this dubious title, as Arab Joint List MK Basel Ghattas was accused of smuggling phones to jailed Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails:

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has authorized police to question Ghattas under caution for alleged security breaches. The MK is suspected of smuggling cell phones to the prisoners at Ketziot Prison, south of Beersheba in southern Israel.

Police told Channel 2 that they believe Ghattas may have also, on at least one occasion, smuggled in SIM cards for the prisoners, hidden in a hollowed-out book.

MK Basel Ghattas was then summoned by the police

Israel police have summoned MK Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List) for questioning on suspicion of involvement in security offenses.

According to the report by Channel 2, the investigation was triggered by information received by the Prison Service’s intelligence unit about visits Ghattas made to prisoners in Israeli jails. A member of the Balad party is also under investigation.

“It is clear that the police are intent on continuing the persecution of political leaders and Balad members.” Ghattas said. “This conduct indicates a policy of political vindictiveness which did not scare us in the past and does not frighten us now.”

Ghattas’ absurd accusation against the police should be regarded as a form of incitement on its own. The Im Tirtzu organization replied:

“MKs from the Joint List continue to act as if they think they are above the law. Ghattas continues the glorious tradition of Balad members to accept a salary from the State of Israel while at the same time working against the state. It is time to hold them accountable before they cause even greater damage.”

Indeed.

It’s also not the first time Ghattas has been involved in anti-Israel activity. He praised terrorists who were killed by Israeli forces as “martyrs”. He got off unscathed despite demands to censure or otherwise punish him and Hanin Zoabi.

The implications of Ghattas’ offence are terrifying:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke out about the allegations Sunday evening, saying that if true, the case represented a major security breach for Israel.

“If the suspicions against MK Ghattas are proven true, then it amounts to a very serious threat to Israeli security and civilians. Anyone who harms the state’s security needs to be punished severely, and must not be allowed to serve in the Israeli Knesset.”

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) called the suspicions against Ghattas extremely serious, adding that were he not a sitting Knesset Member, he would likely have been already been arrested.

Erdan made another very important point, which seems to be accepted as the norm, whereas it should be roundly, loudly and thoroughly condemned by all parties:

Erdan also said the case highlighted the dangers of allowing MKs to visit jailed terrorists.

Why on earth are sitting MKs visiting jailed terrorists? These are not “merely” suspects. These are extremely dangerous people who stood trial and were convicted for the most heinous of crimes, including murder, and plotting to murder. For example:

One of the prisoners that Ghattas is alleged to have met with is Walid Daka, who was sentenced to 37 years for the 1984 abduction and murder of 19-year-old IDF soldier Moshe Tamam.

IDF soldier Moshe Tamam, who was murdered in 1984 (YouTube screenshot)

IDF soldier Moshe Tamam, who was murdered in 1984 (YouTube screenshot)

Tamam’s mother, Gila, said on Monday that “any lawmaker who helps those who killed my son has blood on his hands.” She said that nobody can bring her son back, but all efforts must be made to prevent further terror attacks.

Ghattas was condemned across the board at the Knesset:

President Reuven Rivlin said on Monday that if allegations that Balad MK Basel Ghattas smuggled phones to inmates in Israeli prison are proven true, he should be stripped of parliamentary immunity and punished severely.

But despite the brouhaha, Ghattas is nowhere to be found:

A spokesperson for Basel Ghattas, the Joint (Arab) List MK suspected of smuggling cellphones to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, denied reports the lawmaker had gone underground in an effort to avoid police questioning over the affair.

But by Monday evening, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Lahav 433 National Crime Unit had been unable to get hold of Ghattas all day.

“He has apparently gone underground, he and his assistant have turned off their phones,” Erdan told Channel 2.

The channel confirmed that Ghattas’s phone was either busy or disconnected when they tried to call.

An attempt by The Times of Israel to reach Ghattas spokesman Tareq Khateeb went straight to voicemail.

While police are usually able to locate suspects by tracking their phones, Ghattas’s immunity as a Knesset member prevented them from such action.

Erdan noted that, while Ghattas could simply be huddling with legal advisers before contacting police to set up his questioning, “the facts are that police have been unable to reach him or his assistants since the morning.”

The minister warned that should Ghattas continue to avoid law enforcement officials, “all police capabilities to locate [wanted persons] will be used.”

It should be noted that another Balad MK, Azmi Bishara, fled to Lebanon or points east after being accused of assisting Hezbollah:

The founder of Ghattas’s Balad political party fled Israel in 2007, after suspicions surfaced that he may have passed sensitive information to Hezbollah during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

These Arab MKs are tainting the reputation of their entire community and ruining efforts at coexistence. If they wish to represent their community, sit in the government of the Jewish state of Israel and be paid by them, then there are certain basic rules they have to abide by.

The most important of those would be “do not betray your country”.

[Dan193]

How the hell is this Arab terrorist Israeli-Arab Mayor Ali Salam allowed to live in Israel but Chaim isn't.
Explain this insanity?

https://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=19562
Nazareth municipality has school children honor murderer of 3 Israelis
by Itamar Marcus
Dec. 18, 2016

Nazareth municipality has school children honor murderer of 3 Israelis
Terrorist murderer Baha Alyan glorified with public readers' chain of Nazareth school children
 
PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs honored terrorist murderer Baha Alyan with summer camp named after him:
The summer camp Free Sons of Palestine
Pioneers of the Martyr Baha Alyan 2016
 
Itamar Marcus
 
Last week, the municipality of Nazareth, a predominantly Arab town in Israel headed by Israeli-Arab Mayor Ali Salam, held an event that glorified terrorist murderer Baha Alyan who together with an accomplice murdered 3 Israelis on a bus in Jerusalem last year. "Hundreds of elementary and high school students and young men and women of all ages" participated in the event organized by Nazareth municipality and the Inma'a Association for Democracy and Capacity Building. [Al-Quds, Dec. 11, 2016]

At the event, the coordinator Saeb Masarwah from Inma'a stated that the chain was a "completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan" and that the "Nazareth municipality supported the project":

"'We saw fit to establish the largest and longest chain of readers in the city of Nazareth as a completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan who came out of Jerusalem. We are gathering here in order to emphasize our unity as Arabs everywhere, and we will complete the message in all of the Arab cities and villages.' Masarwah noted that the Nazareth municipality supported the project and welcomed the cultural idea."
[Al-Quds, Dec. 11, 2016, emphasis added]
 
Before Baha Alyan's terror attack, in which he murdered 3 innocent Israeli civilians, he had once established a readers' chain in Jerusalem. It is under this pretext that Nazareth honored him. However, his public legacy is one of murder.
 
On Oct. 13, 2015, Alyan and Bilal Ghanem boarded a bus in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood with a gun and a knife and attacked passengers, killing Israelis Haviv Haim (78), Alon Govberg (51), Richard Lakin (76), and wounding 3 other Israelis. Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard at the scene and Ghanem, a Hamas terrorist who served time in Israeli prison in 2013-2014, was wounded. Ghanem is serving 3 life sentences and an additional 60 years for these murders.

Ironically, the Palestinian daily Al-Quds described the chain of readers as an attempt to "acquire knowledge in a city that every day tries to stand firm against the violence, intolerance, and sectarianism." (emphasis added.)

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that several Palestinian universities have honored murderer Baha Alyan, as has the Palestinian Scouts and Guides. 

Recently, the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, which has replaced the PA Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, posted "memories" on Facebook from a summer camp that also honored the murderer, announcing "the summer camp Free Sons of Palestine, Pioneers of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan 2016":
 
Text on sign:
"Under the supervision of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs - Center [Branch]
The Beit Anan Sports Club holds the first session
of the summer camp Free Sons of Palestine
 Pioneers of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan
2016"
[Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports,
Nov. 11, 2016]
 
The following are longer excerpts of the reports on Nazareth's readers' chain and the PLO summer camp honoring murderer Baha Alyan:
l
Headline: "Nazareth: Chain of readers in honor of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan"
"As a sign of honor for the soul of Jerusalem Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan (i.e., terrorist who murdered 3) who organized the longest chain of readers in 2014 that surrounded the walls of Jerusalem, the city of Nazareth followed in his path and organized the longest chain of readers, that stretched from the plaza of the Spring Square to within the old city and until the Church of the Annunciation, under the title Nazareth Reads. Hundreds of elementary and high school students and young men and women of all ages arranged themselves in rows yesterday morning [Dec. 10, 2016] and sat, sometimes in a crouch, or on the public benches in the city, while each held a book in his lap and delved into it in order to acquire knowledge in a city that every day tries to stand firm against the violence, intolerance, and sectarianism.

This step was taken in cooperation between the Inma'a Association [for Democracy and Capacity Building] and the Nazareth municipality, and at its base was the idea raised by the young person from Nazareth, Saeb Masarwah, who spoke as coordinator of the project and said: 'We saw fit to establish the largest and longest chain of readers in the city of Nazareth as a completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan who came out of Jerusalem. We are gathering here in order to emphasize our unity as Arabs everywhere, and we will complete the message in all of the Arab cities and villages.' Masarwah noted that the Nazareth municipality supported the project and welcomed the cultural idea, and dealt with the cultural scene and the community of readers in Nazareth. Likewise, he said that this is one of the most positive steps that the city has taken, 'and I was happy today to see the small children, the young men and women reading, and this is the proof that the situation of our people is still good. Perhaps we think that we are a society that does not read, but this long chain proves that we still read.'

In another interview with a volunteer of the Inma'a Association, Hanaa Farid Zaher, who participated in the organization of the project, she said that as a young person from Nazareth, she sees this chain as one of the most important activities that has been organized in the city, 'and we will organize this chain many times, and we will not be satisfied with one chain, in order to know the rate of our success as young people, students, the cultural institutions, and the municipality, in changing society.' Regarding the importance of the project, she noted that it constitutes a cultural awakening of Nazareth. When we awaken culturally and ideologically, we will become free and will free ourselves of mistaken habits and ideas that are found among us and that pass from generation to generation, as Martyr Juliano Mer-Khamis (Israeli actor, film maker, and peace activist assassinated by a Palestinian -Ed.) said: A rifle without culture behind it kills and does not free."
[Israeli-Arab website Arab 48, Dec. 10, 2016,
Al-Quds, Dec. 11, 2016]
 
Juliano Mer-Khamis - Israeli actor, film maker, and peace activist, with an Israeli Jewish mother and Arab Christian father. He was assassinated in Jenin on April 4, 2011, by a Palestinian.

Images and text posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs
j
Posted text: "Memories from the 2016 summer camps for the pioneers (i.e., youth)
The Fortresses of Victory, the Seeds of Hope (i.e., name of a summer camp)
The first session of the camp Free Sons of Palestine - Beit Anan"
;
The image shows a sign on which is written:
 
"Under the supervision of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs - Center [Branch]
The Beit Anan Sports Club holds the first session
of the summer camp Free Sons of Palestine
Pioneers of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan
2016"
[Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports,
Nov. 11, 2016

[Nevski]

That's the situation at the moment.

[Shamgar]

As prophesied, Isaiah 5:20. It has come to this in our time.
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

[Zelhar]

He was just doing his job. The absurd is that the Israelis allow people whose declared allegience is with the enemy and their declared goal is the extermination of the Jewish state, to become members of knesset and enjoy nearly complete immunity to the law.