Israeli police on Sunday released Arab journalist Abed Abou Shahadeh without charge, days after he was detained on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent. The suspicion stemmed from his trip to Qatar to interview fugitive former Knesset member Azmi Bishara ahead of the October 27 election.
Abou Shahadeh, 38, walked out of a police station in Petah Tikva after police decided not to ask the court for another extension of his remand. A second remand hearing that had been scheduled for Sunday morning was canceled. Asked whether the case against him was closed, police referred questions to the Shin Bet security agency, which did not respond to a request for comment.
According to his family and lawyers, about 15 masked officers from the police and the Shin Bet raided Abou Shahadeh's Jaffa home late at night, detained him without explanation and seized his computer and phone. His wife, Hanin Aghbaria, said a plainclothes officer entered the bedroom where she was with the couple's two young sons while her husband was in the living room, causing her to scream. "I thought he was a burglar," she said. "He came in like a thief, and he snatched my husband." She said it was the only moment she felt afraid during the ordeal, adding that she had long expected security forces to come after her husband and that 15 officers had shown up at the home six months earlier "for no reason" and stayed ten minutes.
Speaking at a reception in Jaffa after his release, Abou Shahadeh said he was held alone in a cell measuring two meters by two meters for 24 hours a day. "You start to appreciate the things we take for granted, our children, partners and parents, but also each other," he said.
Abou Shahadeh is head of podcasting at the Arab48 news site and hosts its flagship podcast, Al-Midan. His commentary has also appeared in the left-wing Israeli outlet Local Call and on Al Jazeera. He heads Jaffa's Islamic Council and previously sat on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council as a representative of Yafa, a municipal alliance of the binational communist party Hadash and the Palestinian nationalist party Balad, two of the three factions in the Joint List.
Dozens of well-wishers and journalists gathered at the headquarters of the League for the Arabs of Jaffa to welcome him, cheering and singing "Janna Ya Watanna" (Heaven our Homeland), an Arabic patriotic song, as he approached. Among those present were Balad leader and former MK Sami Abou Shahadeh, the journalist's cousin, who had been placed third on the Joint List slate but dropped out after the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify him over purported support for armed conflict against Israel, a ban the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold. Also attending were Tel Aviv-Jaffa Deputy Mayor Amir Badran of Hadash and former MK Jamal Zahalka, who took over Balad after Bishara fled the country in 2007 amid suspicions he had assisted Hezbollah during the previous year's Second Lebanon War and now leads the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel.
Addressing the crowd first in Arabic and then in Hebrew, Abou Shahadeh urged supporters to hold their heads high in the face of "political persecution." "I abhor the culture of fear," he said. "The political persecution didn't start with me and won't end with me. We must not be afraid. We must not fall into that trap." He called for coexistence and for steady work "step by step" toward "a better future for Arab children and for Jewish children," adding, "People just want to make a living." Switching to English, he thanked international supporters, including three Jewish Democratic US congressmen-elect who signed a letter demanding his release.
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court had ruled on Wednesday that police could keep Abou Shahadeh in custody until Sunday, partially accepting a request for an eight-day extension. His lawyers argued in court that the allegations concerned only the interview with Bishara and accused police and the Shin Bet of punishing him for his journalism. A police representative at the hearing declined to confirm whether the interview was the sole alleged offense, pointing instead to a confidential dossier submitted by investigators.
The arrest came as the Shin Bet probes allegations of foreign interference in the election, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his parliamentary majority on the heels of unprecedented Arab voter turnout. Netanyahu has seized on the allegations to claim Arab parties "stole" the election. Critics have accused Shin Bet chief David Zini of manufacturing the case at Netanyahu's bidding, and unnamed senior officials in the agency have been quoted in Hebrew media accusing Zini of blowing the investigation out of proportion. Zini is also said to have sought the interrogation of three senior Arab politicians, including Sami Abou Shahadeh, without evidence of wrongdoing.
Writing on X after his cousin's release, Sami Abou Shahadeh said that now "Zini, Netanyahu's marionette, is expected to go after a new target." "Netanyahu, who refuses to accept his election loss, will keep making up lies and falsehoods, and we'll keep working toward a different reality," the Balad chief wrote.
