Political activists within the 1948 territories condemn the arrest and interrogation of the former head of the Higher Follow-Up Committee on the pretext of “terrorism” in connection with a speech he delivered at the Fatah movement conference in Ramallah on the eve of its anniversary in 2022.
Israeli police raided the home of Mohammed Barakeh in the city of Shafa’amr, arrested him, and interrogated him inside the occupation police headquarters in the Ariel settlement, despite his refusal to accept the location of the interrogation. Hours later, the court released him with restrictions imposed on him, including refraining from visiting the occupied West Bank for a month.
Defense lawyer Khaled Zabarqa pointed out that “the occupation police in the Ariel settlement had made contact with Baraka several days ago, and summoned him for telephone questioning. Baraka refused to appear for questioning in the settlement, and tasked the Adalah human rights center with following up on his case. However, the police refused to officially respond to Adalah’s inquiry regarding the location of the investigation, and made a second call to Baraka to summon him for questioning, which Baraka refused again.”
A police officer arrived at Baraka's home with a court order to conduct an investigation at the police station in the Ariel settlement. The investigation lasted four hours, ostensibly concerning the content of a speech he delivered in Ramallah in the last month of 2022.
A police officer arrived at Barakeh's home with a court order to conduct an investigation at the police station in the Ariel settlement. The investigation lasted four hours, ostensibly regarding the content of a speech he delivered in Ramallah in the last month of 2022. Adding insult to injury, Barakeh was forced to provide his fingerprints, and his face was photographed. The investigators then decided to bring Barakeh before the Magistrate's Court in Petah Tikva to impose a series of restrictions on his release, including a travel ban until the end of October, the surrender of his passport, and a 90-day ban on entering the occupied West Bank. Barakeh rejected these restrictions through his lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, who was appointed by the Adalah Center to defend him.
The court decided to reject the police request regarding travel abroad, but it maintained the ban on him entering the West Bank for 30 days, with a series of financial guarantees. Then the police decided to confiscate Baraka’s two mobile phones, allegedly to complete the investigation.
Adalah Center noted that “members of the Knesset from the settler right, whom the unhinged settler gangs see as their representatives in the Knesset and the government, have demanded in the past three years to ban the High Follow-Up Committee, with a special focus on the head of the committee at the time, Muhammad Barakeh . Indeed, several sessions were held in the National Security Committee of the Knesset in 2023, then in 2025, and two months ago.”
Adalah considered that this confirms that this investigation was called for by settlement entities within the government apparatus.
The High Follow-Up Committee affirmed that Barakeh’s arrest is “another dangerous episode in the series of political persecutions, as part of an attempt to intimidate our Arab masses and deter them from their political activity and legitimate struggle against the policies of occupation, racism and political repression.”
The High Follow-Up Committee affirmed that Barakeh's arrest is "another dangerous episode in the series of political persecutions, as part of an attempt to intimidate our Arab masses and deter them from their political activity."
In response to a question from the head of the High Follow-Up Committee, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, considered that this arrest and provocative investigation against Barakeh, in addition to targeting him personally over the years, also targets our Arab masses and the Follow-Up Committee, which is subjected to intensive incitement from the current and former ruling circles, stressing that the goal behind these pressures is to try to suppress the legitimate political voice of our masses and deprive them of their right to struggle for their national, ethnic and daily rights.
Zahalka points out that conducting a provocative political investigation against him comes against the backdrop of a speech he gave three years ago, which confirms that the intention is racist political persecution.
Intimidating national leaders and criminalizing political stances
The Communist Party and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality condemned the “provocative arrest and police-intelligence investigation of the National Front communist leader, Mohammed Barakeh.
Their joint statement said that they see this political persecution as a new episode in the fascist persecution led by the settler government against our Arab masses, their leaders, their representative institutions, and the legitimacy of their political discourse.
They stressed that “what is happening is a fascist attempt to tighten the noose around the Arab masses in the country and their representative institutions, foremost among them the Higher Follow-Up Committee,” noting that the arrest aims to silence the national democratic voice that opposes occupation, settlement, and racism, as the settler government resorts to the tools of the police, intelligence, and courts to settle scores with anyone who raises their voice against its policies.
They also see this persecution as part of a broader context of criminalizing Arab political action, persecuting national leaders, and attempting to delegitimize our people's discourse against occupation, war, discrimination, and oppression.
The Communist Party and the Front concluded by emphasizing that this policy will not break the will of our masses, nor will it intimidate their leaders, nor will it undermine the status of the Higher Follow-Up Committee or the legitimacy of our political and popular struggle.
They continued: “On the contrary, it will increase our determination to confront fascism and racism, and to defend the rights of our Arab masses, the freedom of political action, and the right of our Palestinian people to freedom and justice.”
Continuous harassment and harassment
For its part, the National Democratic Assembly condemned “the arrest of comrade and leader Muhammad Barakeh, and the provocative political investigation to which he was subjected today, in a step that falls within the ongoing campaign of persecution and harassment of Arab political leaders and national political action.”
The group stressed that these policies will not succeed in silencing the voice of our people or deterring them from continuing to defend their national and civil rights in the face of the policies of occupation, racism, and escalating incitement by the mouthpieces of the fascist right in Israel.
Tags:
asiawest
