MIDDLE EAST:One of Israel's most outspoken Arab politicians, who has left the country and resigned as an MP, is being investigated on suspicion of helping an enemy during war, Israeli police said yesterday.
Azmi Bishara was questioned twice by police before he left Israel a month ago. In Cairo this week, he resigned his position as a member of the knesset, the Israeli parliament.
A court order preventing any mention of the investigation was partially lifted yesterday.
Police said Mr Bishara, a Christian born in Nazareth, is suspected of several crimes, including passing information to an enemy, contacting foreign agents and receiving large amounts of money from abroad.
Some of the accusations cover last year's 34-day war in Lebanon.
Mr Bishara, who led the Balad party and had been an MP for 11 years, incurred the wrath of several prominent politicians when he travelled to Syria and Lebanon in the weeks after last year's war.
He has also called for Palestinians to be given full citizenship in a bi-national state of Arabs and Jews.
In 2001, after a trip to Syria, he was charged with incitement to violence and supporting Hizbullah, but the Israeli supreme court dismissed the charges and restored his parliamentary immunity. - ( Guardian service)