Israeli Arab Accused of Spying for Hizbullah
An Israeli citizen suspected of being a prospective Hizbullah spy was indicted on Sunday on charges of contact with a foreign agent, Haaretz said on its website.
According to Haaretz, Ismail Saleiman, from the Jezreel Valley town of Hajajra, is suspected of being in contact with a Hizbullah operative and planning to spy on Israel for the Shiite party.
Police and the Shin Bet security service arrested the 27-year-old man February 5, but the incident was kept hush-hush until Sunday, when Saleiman was indicted in the Nazareth District Court.
According to the indictment, Saleiman had been due to begin collecting information for Hizbullah about military bases in Israel five months after his return to the country, according to an arrangement he had reached with the Hizbullah operative, Abu Qassam.
The indictment accuses Saleiman of agreeing to work for Hizbullah during a meeting with Abu Qassam in Saudi Arabia, while Saleiman was on pilgrimage to Mecca some six months ago.
Haaretz quoted Saleiman”s lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, as saying Sunday that her client never had any intention of causing damage to Israel”s security.
"The person from Hizbullah initiated contact with him when he was in Mecca and pestered him," she said. "The main story here is how Hizbullah is tripping up Israeli Arabs who travel to sites that are sacred to Islam."
The charge sheet states that Abu Qassam came up to Saleiman and his friends and asked them if they were from Israel. The same day, he allegedly arranged a meeting with Saleiman, during which he recruited him after asking about the suspect”s religious beliefs, attitude toward the Second Lebanon War and ability to collect information in Israel, Haaretz said.
It said Saleiman is accused of giving Abu Qassam, who said he was a Palestinian living in Lebanon, his phone number and email address, and the two allegedly agreed that they would exchange only seemingly innocent emails.
However, Saleiman did not reply to three emails Abu Qassam sent, initiating contact only in the wake of the Gaza war, according to the indictment. By the time of Saleiman”s arrest, Abu Qassam had not responded to the email.