Arab-Israeli human rights activist, Amir Makhoul, pleads guilty to spying for enemy of Israel

 A leading² Arab-Israeli human rights activist,⁵ Amir Makhoul, 52, who has said attacks on Israeli civilians are not war crimes,³ has admitted and pleaded guilty to "contact with a foreign agent"⁵ and "conspiring to assist an enemy during a time of war",⁵ as part of a plea bargain. The prosecution in return has dropped the charge of “assisting”^2,5 an enemy during war, which could have resulted in a life sentence if found guilty.² Charges specifically linking his activities to Hezbollah has also been dropped.³ Makhoul now faces only up to 10 years in prison. The State Prosecutor's Office said the guilty plea puts an end to unfounded allegations that the charges were politically motivated and that wrongful means were used to acquired the confession.⁶

  The charges against Hakhoul includes meeting Hezbollah agents during his travels,⁶ including to Denmark,⁵ and passing information to them on at least 10 occasions,⁶ [including] “street address, directions, and security arrangements for several strategic locations, including Shin Bet offices, Mossad offices, the Nachshonim military base, the Rafael weapons systems factory, and the home of Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin.”³ During the 2006 war with Hezbollah, he is alleged to have passed on the location of rocket strikes in Israel³ [probably] so Hezbollah could calculate the accuracy of it's attacks,⁴ and where he believed captured Lebanese fighters were held.¹ He allegedly also tried to pass on a video of a failed terror attack against a Haifa mall.⁶

Makhoul was a former director of Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations and had also been chairman of High Arab Monitoring Committee's panel on defending Arab citizens' freedoms.⁶ [He most likely used the knowledge gained from serving in these posts to aid terror,] as he is also accused of giving Hezbollah a list of Arab-Israelis potentially willing to be recruited.³ One of his alleged terror contact was Hussan Jaja, a fellow community activist in Jordan, to whom he is said to have sent information using sophisticated encryption programmes² or a coded email program.¹ Another political activist, Omar Sayid, who was arrest along with Makhoul, had also had been charged with spying² but has been released after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.⁵ MK Azmi Bishara also faced charges of spying but has fled the country and there have been other less well known cases of Arab-Israelis betraying to the terrorists.³

Sources: 1. AP, 2. BBC, 3. Israel National News, 4. Reuters, 5. VOA, 6. Ynetnews