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| By israelinsider staff May 3, 2007 |
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The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) released for publication Wednesday information that could prove to be the most severe case of espionage in Israeli history. Former MK and Balad chairman Azmi Bishara has been under investigation for the past few years for suspicions of assisting the enemy in a time of war, maintaining contact with a foreign agent, passing information to an enemy, money laundering, and terrorist financing, The Jerusalem Post and Ynetnews reported.
According to the allegations, only portions of which were revealed to the press Wednesday, Bishara spied for Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War, providing Israel's enemy with information, predictions, evaluations and recommendations about Israel's government, the IDF, and the Israeli people during the war. Bishara, the Shin Bet stated, also carried out detailed missions on behalf of Hizbullah. Bishara was also allegedly in contact with intelligence officials from other countries.
Based on the suspicions against him, the Supreme Court permitted gave security officials special permission to tap Bishara's telephone conversations.
Assisting the enemy during wartime, a crime Bishara is suspected of committing, is one of the few offenses in Israel that may be punishable by death.
Hizbullah and the war
During last summer's war, Bishara reportedly advised Hizbullah on how to cause Israel more damage with rocket strikes. He also allegedly provided Hizbullah with classified military information. Most of the conversations with the Hizbullah agent took place during the war.
The Shin Bet reported that during one conversation Bishara was asked how Israel would respond if it were hit by long-range missiles that could hit targets south of Haifa. Bishara then mumbled something and implied that he was nervous that the conversation was being monitored, but then told the Hizbullah agent that they should go ahead with long-range missile attacks. Within a few days of their conversation, Katyusha rockets began landing south of Haifa.
Bishara also recommended targets for Hizbullah rockets, advising his contact on which towns and to hit and which to avoid. According to the investigation, it appears that Hizbullah in a large part acted according to Bishara's advice and recommendations.
Bishara also believed Israel had plans to assassinate Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and he warned Hizbullah about that.
Hizbullah paid Azmi Bishara well for his information and apparently did everything possible to make him feel important, knowing that that would further Bishara's motivation to help them.
"Bishara caused severe harm to the security of the State of Israel," The Jerusalem Post quoted a high-ranking Shin Bet official as saying Wednesday. "He maintained secret contact by secret lines of communication with Hizbullah..."
Police questioning
After the war, police investigators began to pursue Bishara in order to question him. However, Bishara made every effort to evade their efforts and did not return their phone calls.
Eventually, the police trapped Bishara and forced him to speak to them by having an officer named Yaron London (also the name of a renowned journalist) call him. Bishara immediately returned the officer's call, at which point he summoned Bishara for questioning.
Police reported that Bishara was confident and arrogant at the first day of questioning. He assumed he was called in for questions about his trips to enemy states Syria and Lebanon after the war and, having been charged with traveling to an enemy country countless times before and always getting away with it, Bishara was not worried.
Bishara was questioned by the Israel Police's International Serious Crimes Unit on two occasions on March 22 and 23 in Petah Tikva. According to the investigators, Bishara's mood changed once he was shown a transcript of his phone conversations with a Hizbullah official.
Bishara informed police of his plans to travel abroad, but authorities were unable to hold him in Israel due to his immunity as a member of Knesset. According to police, there is still a lot of evidence Bishara must answer to.
Bishara will be arrested immediately upon his return to Israel. Israel is considering the option of releasing an international warrant for his arrest.
Money laundering
According to the security forces' investigation, Bishara also received hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, illegally. According to the Shin Bet, the money was transferred to a money changer in Jordan, then to a family of money changers in East Jerusalem, and then to his home in Beit Hanina.
Sometimes Bishara received the money in shekels and sometimes in dollars. He received $50,000 in each transaction and he used code language to discuss the money. Each transfer of $50,000 was called a "book" and Bishara could request it in English (dollars) or in Hebrew (shekels). On one occasion, Bishara requested "half a book," meaning $25,000.
During the questioning, Bishara denied receiving any money, but then refused to meet one of the alleged money changers, who is most likely now acting as a witness for the State.
It has been reported that the police are considering submitting a request to conduct a judicial inquiry in Jordan. It would be the first time Israel seeks permission to conduct an investigation in Jordan.
After Bishara's resignation from Knesset became official on April 26, police searched his homes in Beit Hanina and Haifa, and his Nazareth office. Police also searched Bishara's former office in the Knesset.
Bishara has accused Israel of discrimination and claims the accusations against him are politically motivated and meant to distract Israelis from the crisis surrounding the release of the Winograd report.
A high-ranking Shin Bet official said, in response, that the severity of the allegations speak for themselves. "We will not be deterred from investigating anyone, even public officials or Knesset members, who need to be investigated," the official said.
Bishara tries to shift the blame
In an interview with the Lebanon based Al-Akhbar newspaper, affiliated with Hizbullah, Bishara said, "The claims against me are fabricated and dangerous. They want to turn me into an informant instead of a political leader."
"It proves that they (Israel) target whomever they want to take revenge on the most, to the point of willing to fabricate such dangerous claims.
"The point of these allegations is to make the political and cultural leadership of the Palestinians in Israel look like security threats, so that no one in the Middle East or the West will believe that there are democratic Arabs, who mean what they say, who identify with the resistance, and its political and cultural actions," Bishara said.
With regards to his potential return to Israel, Bishara said: We are looking into the situation -- how we'll return, and when we'll return. In any case, there are still no plans in that direction."
The last time the death penalty was used in Israel was the hanging in Jerusalem on June 1, 1962 of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, captured by the Mossad in South America.
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