Third left-wing activist arrested in less than a week

The activist arrested last Monday was prevented from meeting a lawyer for four days, and his identity remains banned from publication.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: JANUARY 21, 2016 01:50
An El Al Boeing 777 aircraft is seen at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport (photo credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS/IDF SPOKESMAN)
An El Al Boeing 777 aircraft is seen at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport
(photo credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS/IDF SPOKESMAN)
Judea and Samaria District police on Wednesday arrested a third left-wing activist as part of an ongoing investigation that saw the arrest of a well-known activist at Ben-Gurion Airport last week.
Though the case remains under a gag order, the NGO B’Tselem on Wednesday said in a statement that one of their field workers was arrested in the morning by soldiers during a raid in the village of Sussiya. They added that they were informed by detectives that the police had secured a court order banning the activist from meeting with an attorney for the time being.
The night before, police confirmed that they had arrested a second activist as part of the same investigation.
The case centers on an activist arrested last week at Ben-Gurion Airport who is suspected of contact with a foreign agent – a security crime – due to alleged dealings with the PA’s Preventive Security Service.
The activist arrested last Monday was prevented from meeting a lawyer for four days, and his identity remains banned from publication – despite the fact that his name and photo were already widely published in the Israeli media.
On Tuesday, Haaretz reported that a pro-settlement organization that receives government funding had paid a private investigator to dig up dirt on prominent human rights attorney Michael Sfard and the NGOs he works with.
MK Dov Henin (Joint List) said of the arrests on Wednesday that “again they are using emergency decrees to prevent suspects from meeting with their attorneys. At the same time, we are finding out about extreme-right-wing groups funded by the public coffers that are hounding left-wing activists and hiring private investigators to follow them.”
He also accused the right-wing “of trying to find a new, internal enemy who can replace the Iran threat.”
MK Yousef Jabareen, also of the Joint List, called the arrests “part of a campaign meant to silence Israeli activists who are struggling against the injustices of the occupation in Area C.”