Israel releases reporter held for five days over 'foreign agent' suspicion

Israeli authorities on Sunday released Arab-Israeli journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh without charge after holding him for five days over an interview he conducted with a former Israeli lawmaker in Qatar, a legal rights group said.Abu Shehadeh was arrested at his home in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, on Tuesday night by more than a dozen police officers. He was detained on suspicion of having “contacted a foreign agent”, according to an AFP journalist who attended his court hearing.His interrogation by police and Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, focused on a publicly available interview he had conducted with Azmi Bishara, a former member of Israel's parliament and founder of the Arab political party Balad, Adalah, the legal group representing him, said.The interview, published on the Arab 48 news website ahead of Israel's October 27 election, addressed the election campaign and Palestinian political issues. Bishara has lived in exile in Qatar since leaving Israel in 2007, after facing allegations of links to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which he denied.Abu Shehadeh's lawyers argued that the interview constituted legitimate journalistic work and that speaking to Bishara did not provide grounds for criminal suspicion. They also disputed the characterisation of the former lawmaker as a foreign agent.Adalah welcomed Abu Shehadeh's release but said it did not make his arrest any less unlawful.“The police raided his home at night. He was interrogated about his journalism,” the group said, adding that the case sent a message that a public conversation with a political figure could lead to detention.Following his release, Abu Shehadeh described his detention as “wrongful” and “completely baseless”. He accused the Shin Bet of conducting a “witch hunt” on behalf of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alleging that the investigation was intended to intimidate Arab citizens and undermine their political participation.“Arab society has chosen to struggle through democratic means, and no persecution will succeed in silencing us,” he said.The arrest came amid heightened political tensions surrounding Israel's Arab minority, whose members are descendants of Palestinians who remained in the country after its creation in 1948. Following the closely contested October 27 election, Netanyahu has criticised the prospect of Arab lawmakers helping the opposition form a government and alleged that they receive outside support.The detention drew criticism from press freedom groups and US lawmakers. Three newly elected Democratic members of the US House of Representatives — Brad Lander, Daniel Biss and Scott Wiener — wrote to Israel's ambassador to the US on Friday, urging authorities to release Abu Shehadeh or disclose the evidence against him and ensure due-process protections if charges were filed.The Committee to Protect Journalists had also called for his release, warning against penalising journalists for interviewing individuals critical of the Israeli government.It remained unclear whether the investigation against Abu Shehadeh had formally ended following his release. Israeli police did not challenge the decision to release him, leading to the cancellation of a further detention hearing scheduled for Sunday.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.