

Awad Abdel Fattah addressing the Palestine Center in Washington, DC on Israeli repression of Palestinian political movements, May, 10, 2011. (Photo: Palestine Center)

Awad Abdel Fattah is the secretary general of Balad, a Palestinian political party in Israel which was founded by Azmi Bishara in 1995. Balad, or the National Democratic Party as its sometimes known, currently holds three seats in the Knesset represented by Said Naffaa, Jamal Zahalka, and Haneen Zoabi.

Balad issued a press release today charging that authorities at Ben Gurion airport routinely harass and detain Abdel Fattah. From the release:

The latest incident occurred last month, when Awad Abdel Fattah, the NDP’s secretary-general, returned from a speaking tour in Europe. Among his engagements, he met Finland’s Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, and leaders of political parties in Belgium and Sweden to discuss the increasingly repressive political atmosphere in Israel towards the country’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens. When Mr Abdel Fattah exited the plane in the early hours of May 3 he was pulled aside for interrogation and detained for more than two hours without his passport. When repeated requests for its return were ignored, and he was not given a reason for his detention, he told the security staff to keep the passport and headed towards baggage reclaim. It was the third time in a month that he had suffered such treatment at Ben Gurion airport. At baggage reclaim, Mr Abdel Fattah was surrounded by security staff and threatened with arrest. Only when Mr Abdel Fattah caused a scene in the baggage reclaim area, in front of other passengers, was he told that the decision to detain him been “an order from higher-up”. This was confirmed a short time later by a senior member of the security police who arrived to speak to Mr Abdel Fattah privately. Mr Abdel Fattah recounted: “He told me that the matter was not in the hands of the police but had come from the intelligence services. He suggested that members of my party in the Knesset should call the Minister of Internal Security. “Minutes later, apparently because of the embarrassment I had caused them, they returned my passport and let me go. At this point, at 6am, I had been detained for three hours.”

This treatment should be seen in the context of the harassment other Balad members have received including Bishara, who has been living in exile in Qatar since 2007, and Haneen Zoabi who had her parliamentary privileges stripped following her participation in the Gaza flotilla.

Here’s the full press release: