Monday, May 31, 2010

Prominent Israeli Arab Leader Faces Unprecedented Charges Of Treason

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/05/28/news/world/doc4bff616ad6048986620688.txt

By DAVID BEDEIN, Middle East Correspondent
Jerusalem — In a move that is bound to send shivers through the Jewish community in the United Sates and in the European Union, Israel Arab community leader Ameer Makhoul was formally indicted this week by Israel's State’s Attorney's office on charges of treason.

Mr. Makhoul, in custody for the past three weeks, has admitted that he provided the Hezbollah terrorist organization with vital security data about Israeli Army bases and with information about facilities belonging to Israel’s General Security Services and Israeli defense industries throughout Israel.
Mr. Makhoul is also being charged with giving Hezbollah information about locations of rockets that fell in Haifa in the course of the Second Lebanon War during the summer of 2006.

All this is stated in an indictment handed down on Thursday in the district court in the city of Haifa, located in northern Israel.

According to this unprecedented indictment, Mr. Makhoul acknowledged that he met in Denmark with a Hezbollah agent and expressed his consent to serve as a secret source of information for the organization.

The reason why American Jewish organizations are concerned is that Mr. Makhoul was the Israeli Arab leader who oversaw allocations of American Jewish philanthropic funds to tens of Israeli Arab organizations, mainly through the aegis of a Washington-based organization known as the New Israel Fund. In addition, Mr. Makoul’s Israeli Arab community organization also received grants from the European Union.

Israel’s first Prime Minister and Defense Minister, David Ben Gurion, who served in these positions between 1948 and 1963, held the Israeli Arab community under military rule, in order to prevent situations like this from occurring.

David Bedein can be reached at bedein@thebulletin.us.

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