Jamal Zahalka
Photo: Gil Nachshoni
Zahalka: Police recommendations' timing linked to protest against Pence
Balad MK claims political persecution against his party, insisting the State Attorney's Office will decide not to indict and that the matter should not have been made into a criminal investigation to begin with; 'The police have blown this case out of proportion.'
Joint List MK Jamal Zahalka dismissed Wednesday the police's recommendation to indict him,
two other Balad faction MKs and other party officials for corruption and questioned the timing of the announcement.
The three MKs are suspected of falsifying documents on a regular basis to hide from the State Comptroller the fact they were receiving millions of shekels in illegal donations.
"This is 100 percent a political matter," Zahalka claimed in an interview with Ynet. "The timing has to do with what happened at the Knesset," when he and other Arab MKs interrupted the speech of US Vice President Mike Pence in protest of the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "The police's leaks are tendentious."
The police investigation against Zahalka, MK Hanin Zoabi, MK Juma Azbarga and other members of the Balad faction was launched after a State Comptroller report found irregularities in the party's campaign donations reports for 2013 and 2015.
Jamal Zahalka (צילום: גיל יוחנן)
Zahalka, however, is confident nothing will come out of the police recommendations. "The evidence the police submitted to the State Attorney's Office doesn't mean anything at the moment. In most cases, (the State Attorney's Office) decided to throw the recommendations to the trash," he said. "I want you to interview me in a few months, and you'll see there will be nothing left of what's been reported about Balad's MKs and activists. It's a storm in a teacup."
He didn't spare his rod from the police. "It persecuted the Balad members, broke into their homes in the middle of the night and detained dozens for questioning," Zahalka accused. "Much graver things happened in many parties, but they chose not to turn an administrative matter into a criminal one."
Arab MKs disrupt Pence's speech (צילום: ערוץ הכנסת)
"The police have blown this case out of proportion," the MK charged further.
Zahalka sought to discredit the suspicions against him, saying "all parties submit financial reports on the management of their election campaigns and on the ongoing management of the party. It has never become a criminal matter, it always ended with the state comptroller, who has the authority to punish in the case of irregularities, and he has done this in the past. There were graver issues, and he has ordered Likud, Bayit Yehudi and other parties to pay millions in fines—and it ended in that. The fact it's being made into a criminal matter (for Balad) is because of political persecution."
Zahalka, left, with fellow Balad MKs Zoabi and Azbarga
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz slammed the Arab MKs in an interview with Ynet on Tuesday, saying "They and Hamas share the same goals. They behaved in a way that Hamas thought praiseworthy" during Pence's speech.
Hamas even issued a message of support in the Arab MKs' actions.
"In this case, the entire Palestinian people viewed our actions favorably," Zahalka said. "We raised the banner against Trump's Jerusalem declaration, and all of the Palestinians were glad for that—from all political factions."
He also said the Joint List "didn't ask" Hamas to issue its message of support, "they're the ones that issued it."
