Firebrand ex-MK Hanin Zoabi to strike plea bargain in forgery case — TV

Former Knesset member Hanin Zoabi of the Arab Balad party is expected to strike a plea bargain that would see her convicted of forgery and receiving a suspended sentence and a fine.

The allegations pertain to financial irregularities in the party, a hard-line Palestinian nationalist faction that makes up part of the Joint List alliance.

Zoabi is accused of forging documents that were submitted to the state comptroller between 2013 and 2016. She is suspected of systematically deceiving the ombudsman by misrepresenting the source of millions of shekels the party had received.

Zoabi will agree to the plea bargain in the coming days, Channel 12 reported on Sunday, citing Balad sources. Another 13 Balad activists will also reach an agreement with the prosecution, the network said.

A lawyer in the case confirmed to Channel 12 that the plea bargain talks were in their advanced stages, but said the agreement was not yet finalized.

Besides Zoabi, 35 other people were questioned in the case.

In April, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced he would charge Zoabi in the case.

“After considering the substance of the claims at the hearing and the legal opinion presented to me, I reached the general conclusion that there is an evidentiary basis and public interest to put Mrs. Zoabi on trial,” Mandelblit said in a statement.

He said there was a “reasonable chance” of convicting Zoabi and that he was not convinced by her lawyers’ arguments to drop the charges at a pre-indictment hearing.

Mandelblit announced that he would not indict other senior Balad officials, despite asserting the evidence indicated they were guilty and that there were legal grounds to file criminal charges against a political party.

“The possible harm of putting a party on trial is expected to not only harm its current leadership or founders or owners, but also a wider circle of citizens who have an attachment to the party and identify with its goals and public positions,” he explained.

In January 2018, police recommended criminal charges against MKs Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, and Juma Azbarga regarding donations Balad received during the 2013 elections, as well as party spending during the 2015 elections. At the time, suspected lawmakers were all questioned, as was former Balad MK Basel Ghattas, who was serving two years in prison for smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian security prisoners.

Zoabi was a highly unpopular figure among Jewish Israelis after she called for the dissolution of the State of Israel, labeled Israeli soldiers “murderers,” and sailed on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 in a bid to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

She announced her departure from political life in January 2019, to the cheers of Jewish lawmakers, several days after fellow party member Zahalka said he would not seek reelection.

Balad, which advocates for a binational state for Palestinians and Israelis, has been dogged by controversy. Party founder Azmi Bishara fled Israel in 2007 after being accused of passing secrets to the Hezbollah terror group.