The High Court has upheld the right of former Israeli Arab Knesset Member and Balad party chairman Azmi Bishara, a fugitive from justice, to receive a pension from his years as a lawmaker. Knesset Member Said Nafa, who succeeded Bishara, said the former MK will not remain much longer in his self-imposed exile in Arab countries.
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and Justices Miriam Naor and Edna Arbel ruled that Bishara is entitled to retain his Israeli citizenship and his pension because he has not yet been charged with a crime. Bishara fled the country just before he was to be indicted on charges of treason and aiding the enemy in wartime, providing strategic information to the Hizbullah terrorist organization during the Second Lebanon War in exchange for payment.
World Likud leader Danny Danon had filed a petition with the Court to revoke Bishara's citizenship and to order the Knesset to halt the transfer of Bishara's pension funds to his bank account. Danon responded to the court decision with angry criticism of the justices. "It is a disgrace that the High Court of Justice has joined hands with the interior minister, who is not taking legal action against Bishara to revoke his citizenship and stop payments to him," he said.
"The terror that is being directed at Israelis by leaders of the country's Arab community has just been given a tailwind by the High Court of Justice," according to the senior Likud leader.
The terror that is being directed at Israelis by leaders of the country's Arab community has just been given a tailwind by the High Court of Justice.
Government lawyers argued against the appeal, pointing out that a recent Knesset bill would prevent pension payments to anyone who has visited an enemy country in the past seven years. Bishara visited Lebanon several times but no action was taken against him.