Two Alleged Hezbollah Spies Arrested
One is prominent Palestinian rights leader
May 10, 2010
(BBC)
Israeli security forces arrested a prominent Palestinian human rights activist and another activist on suspicion of spying for Hezbollah. Ameer Makhoul is the head of Ittijah, or The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations.
We only learned this today, because before then Israel had imposed a gag order on the case (remember, they can do that), and there were only scattered reports that Makhoul had been arrested from his home in Haifa late last week at 3 in the morning, held lawyerless for 48 hours, and remanded for six days. (Electronic Intifada also organized a petition protesting his arrest.) JTA noted that Ittijah was involved in the infamous 2001 Durban conference, and that it refuses to condition aid based on being from non-terrorist sources.
2 Nabs for Spying for Hezbollah [JPost]
Rights Orgs. Condemn Arrest of Palestinian Civil Society Leader [Electronic Intifada]
Arrest of Arab Leader, Gag Order Are Protested [JTA/Baltimore Jewish Times]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
