Balad MKs to be questioned by police

Balad MKs Jamal Zahalka and Haneen Zoabi will be questioned by the Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit in the coming days as part of a fraud investigation into the party’s campaign financing.

The police suspect Balad party officials of falsely representing the origin of millions of shekels, obtained in Israel and abroad, used to finance party operations.

The specifics of when Zahalka and Zoabi will appear for questioning is unknown, and it is unclear whether they will be questioned or asked to give written statements. A spokeswomen for Lahav 433 declined to confirm the investigation of the lawmakers.

In a statement on Thursday, the Balad party confirmed that the two legislators will be brought for questioning and castigated the investigation as “political persecution,” adding that “the order to investigate the MKs is a definite political and vindictive step, resulting from the failure of the police to intimidate the members of the Balad party and its leadership.”

Police have repeatedly denied any political motivations in the investigation

This follows the police detainment of 13 suspects on September 21 in the ongoing investigation, as well as the 23 Balad activists, lawyers and accountants who were detained on September 18.

Those arrested on September 18 included Balad president Awad Abdul Fatah and other senior party leaders; however, Abdul Fatah was released, along with six other Balad officials, on Wednesday by the Haifa Magistrate’s Court.

Balad is uncompromising in its opposition to the Zionist ethos of the state, and its MKs have been embroiled in controversies for acts seen by the Right as provocative and disloyal. Party founder Azmi Bishara fled Israel in 2007 while under investigation for allegedly passing information to Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War a year earlier. He lives in Qatar, where Balad’s three MKs met him in August 2014, during the war in the Gaza Strip.

Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.