BICOM

Israel’s Attorney General confirmed yesterday that an Arab Knesset member is being indicted for smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian security prisoners, undermining state security.

Avichai Mandelblit’s office said that MK Basel Ghattas will be charged with prohibited use of property for terrorist purposes, as well as fraud and breach of trust. Ghattas was caught last month smuggling phones to Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis, including Walid Daka, who has been serving a life sentence since 1984 for his involvement in the murder of IDF soldier Moshe Tamam.

The indictment says that Ghattas requested to meet Daka and another prisoner, claiming that he wanted to hear their complaints over their conditions.

According to the indictment, on December 18 Ghattas met Daka’s brother at a motorway service station and was given “four packages containing: 12 mobile phones, 16 SIM cards, two chargers and an earpiece”. The indictment also details a second similar incident. In both cases, Ghattas is said to have hidden the packages in his clothing and used his parliamentary immunity to refuse a body search.

The indictment also notes that Ghattas carried out the smuggling “while knowing that it is more than likely the equipment will be used to endanger human lives, cause serious harm to people, undermine state security, or to aid a terror organisation”.

Despite the indictment, a magistrates’ court released Ghattas from house arrest yesterday, although he must be accompanied by a police escort at all times.

Ghattas has been strongly criticised by fellow Knesset members in the past. In 2015 he joined a Swedish flotilla aimed at breaching Israel’s naval restrictions around the Gaza Strip coast. Ghattas also described former-President Shimon Peres as a “tyrant… completely covered with our blood” shortly after Peres’ death.

Ghattas’s Balad faction is part of the of the Joint Arab List and other members been accused of inflammatory rhetoric and actions in the past.

Likud’s Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin has already begun proceedings against Ghattas to enact a recent law, which would allow Knesset members to expel colleagues under certain circumstances.