Arab Israeli is suspected of advising Hezbollah

An Arab former legislator is suspected of committing treason and espionage by giving advice to Hezbollah guerrillas during the war in Lebanon last summer, Israeli police officials said Wednesday as they released new details of their investigation.

Azmi Bishara, an outspoken advocate for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians, passed information to Hezbollah and encouraged the militant group to launch rockets deep into Israeli territory during the 34-day conflict, the police allege.

Bishara, who is abroad and is considered a fugitive, resigned from parliament last week as rough outlines of the police investigation began to leak out. He has denied the allegations and accused Israel of a witch hunt in retaliation for his criticisms of the Jewish state’s policies toward Arabs.

The former lawmaker offered no immediate comment Wednesday on the new details.

Police have been releasing elements of their allegations against Bishara, 50, after a court partially lifted a gag order on the investigation last week. No formal charges have been made public.

Police believe Bishara counseled Hezbollah on wartime strategy against Israel, including recommending that its fighters fire rockets south of the port city of Haifa, about 20 miles south of the border with Lebanon.

During the war, Hezbollah launched about 4,000 rockets, most of them short-range projectiles, causing widespread damage in northern Israel and dealing a heavy blow to morale nationwide. Israelis were especially shaken when longer-range weapons hit Haifa and points south of the city, Israel’s third-largest. One salvo killed eight railway workers at a Haifa train shed.

“He advised Hezbollah for strategic reasons to shoot farther into Israel, below Haifa. He also advised Hezbollah about what would be Israel’s considerations and reactions if that happened,” said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Bishara also advised Hezbollah on what it should say in public statements, knowing that the messages would be picked up in the Israeli media, police say.

The goal was to apply pressure on the Israeli public, Rosenfeld said.

Police say Bishara also warned Hezbollah that Israel would seek to kill its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

In addition, Bishara is suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for information he provided to Hezbollah, police say. The former lawmaker received envelopes, each stuffed with $50,000, over a period of months, Rosenfeld said.

The cash came via Jordan and reached Bishara through a money changer in East Jerusalem, the police spokesman said. Three members of the family that runs the East Jerusalem business told police that they had passed money to Bishara, Rosenfeld said.

Police gathered evidence in part through wiretaps, approved by Israel’s Supreme Court even though Bishara was a member of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset. Investigators listened in on Bishara’s phone calls during and after the war.

Authorities questioned Bishara twice in March before he left on what he described as a family vacation and speaking tour in Arab countries. He was to return April 22 for more questioning, police said, but instead delivered his resignation to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo that day.

On Wednesday, his allies accused Israeli authorities of trumping up security-related charges against Bishara to silence the Arab Israeli community, which accounts for about one-fifth of Israel’s population of 7.2 million.

“This man is a philosopher, a writer, and now they’re trying to pin false security charges on him,” said Jamal Zahalka, an Israeli lawmaker with Bishara’s party, the National Democratic Assembly. “We deny this, he denies this. And all of this is because his political opinions bother the establishment.”

Bishara’s party, commonly known as Balad, has three of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

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ellingwood@latimes.com