Israel's red line: Shin Bet arrests boycott leader - Jonathan Cook

[azurnoir]

The recent arrest of two respected public figures from Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority in night-time raids on their homes by the Shin Bet secret police - brought to light this week when a gag order was partially lifted - sent shock waves through the community.

The arrests were not the first of their kind. The Shin Bet has been hounding and imprisoning politicians and intellectuals from the country’s Palestinian minority, a fifth of the population, since the birth of the Jewish state more than six decades ago. Currently, two MKs from Arab political parties, as well as the leader of the popular Islamic Movement, are facing trials.

But the detention of Amir Makhoul and Omar Sayid by Israeli intelligence forces has been seen differently - as the gathering storm clouds in a political climate already fiercely hostile to its Palestinian citizens.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=284209


more on arrests

Shades of Azmi Bishara! The Shin Bet has dusted off its “Arab terror” playbook and come up with the equivalent of the failed, but tried-and-true old standard: when you have an uppity Arab who’s bugging the hell out of you but doing so in accordance with the laws of the land, arrest him under secret gag order. Then wait for the uproar from the usual Commie-Arab suspects, and lower the boom on him with a charge of collaborating with the Arab enemy. Since Hamas is under blockade, it’s usually easier to charge someone with spying for Hezbollah or Syria. That’s precisely what the secret police have done regarding Ameer Makhoul and Omer Said, who were each arrested secretly and held in prison for days without benefit of counsel or charges being filed (until today):

The military censor on Monday lifted a gag order on news that two Israeli Arab political activists were arrested last week on charges of spying and contact with a foreign agent from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Omar Said, a member of the Balad movement, and Ameer Makhoul, director general of the charity Ittijah (Union of Arab Community-Based Associations) were detained by the Shin Bet security service and police anti-terror squads.

Makhoul was arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning, Said on April 24.

Reports of the arrests circulated widely on unofficial websites and blogs but government censors had banned the Israeli press from reporting them until the gag order was lifted late Sunday night.

Sayid was detained and his house was also searched, police said. The activist, who also practices alternative medicine, has been questioned by police on several occasions over trips abroad in the past few years.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/tag/amir-makhoul/