Azmi Bishara

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Azmi Bishara (born 22 July 1956) is an Arab public intellectual, political philosopher, and author.

He is the General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Nazareth, Israel. In 1974, he established the National Committee for Arab High School Students.

When he enrolled at university, he formed the Arab Students Union.

He formed the Balad party in 1995 and was elected to the Knesset in 1996.

In 1999, 2003, and 2006, he was subsequently re-elected.

However, Bishara became the object of a criminal investigation after visiting Lebanon and Syria following the 2006 Lebanon War, and was accused of giving attacking details to Hezbollah.

After being stripped of his parliamentary privileges, he fled Israel, denying the allegations and refusing to return, saying that he would not receive a fair trial.

He was also instrumental in the establishment of Al-Araby Al-Jadeed media conglomerate.

At the start of 2017, he announced his departure from direct political service in the hopes of dedicating all of his time to "writing and intellectual production."

Early life and education

Bishara was born in Nazareth to a Christian Arab family. His mother was a school teacher and his father, a health inspector and labor unionist with links to the Communist Maki party, and his siblings, Marwan (now a political commentator) and Rawia Bishara (a chef, cookbook writer, and restaurateur) were among his siblings. According to The Guardian, the family's roots go back hundreds of years to a village north of Nazareth.

His political activism began at his Baptist high school, where he established the "National Committee of the Arab High School Students" at the age of 18. According to Bishara, he founded the group "because the overwhelming national interest among Arab students of the need to fight against racist practices."

He founded the Arab Students Union during his time at the University of Haifa, as well as being one of the foundings of the Committee for the Defense of Arab Lands in 1976. He continued to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between 1977 and 1980, where he chaired the Arab Students Union and was a leader of the Front of Communist Students-Campus. He then travelled to Berlin and obtained his PhD in philosophy at Berlin's Humboldt University.

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Career

He joined the faculty of Birzeit University in Berlin after completing his PhD in philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin (then East Germany). From 1994-96, he headed the Philosophy and Cultural Studies Department for two years. He has also worked at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute as a senior researcher.

Bishara is one of the founders of the Society for Arab Culture and Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, which was established by a coalition of scholars and scholars in 1992. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Arab Democracy Foundation.

Bishara is currently the general director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, also known as the Doha Institute, and a member of the organisation's executive board. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani's son and his replacement, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, are both a vital advisor.

Bishara was one of a group of young Israeli intellectuals who formed the National Democratic Assembly in 1995, Brit Le'umit Demokratit in Hebrew, short of Balad. On the Balad-Hadash list in 1996, he was elected to the fourteenth Knesset (first seating on the Balad-Hadash list).

Bishara had intended to run as the first Arab to run for Prime Minister in the 1999 election but decided against it two days before the election day, leaving it as a contest between Ehud Barak and Benyamin Netanyahu.

The Central Elections Committee disqualified Bishara from running in the 16th Knesset in 2003, citing a new clause of the Basic Law that barred candidates from running for "armed struggle, by a hostile state or a terrorist group against the State of Israel" and quoting a speech delivered by Bishara in Syria, where he ordered Arab states to support Palestinian resistance. His support for resistance was deemed an endorsement of suicide bombings, but his call for Arab help was described as a "invitation to destroy the state." However, the Supreme Court's decision overturned the CEC's ruling in a 7–4 vote on appeal. Supreme Court President Aharon Barak argued that "Bishara's" speeches did not explicitly endorse a violent resistance against the State of Israel, although they did have approval for a terrorist group against the State of Israel."

Following his election, the Knesset voted to exclude Bishra's right and the attorney general pled guilty of funding a terror group. The charges were dismissed by the Supreme Court, and his citizenship was restored.

During the 2006 Israel–Lebanon War Bishara, Israel condemned the Israeli government for failing to provide bomb shelters to Arab areas in Israel's north, and said Israel was using Arabs as "human shields" by deploying artillery units next to Israeli Arab villages towns and villages. Bishara also predicted that if the Israeli army were defeated or applauded Hezbollah's remarkably strong resistance to the Israeli invasion, there would be no consequences for the area when the war ended. "We'll have to pick up the bill on this," he said. "If [the Israelis] lose, they will turn against us, and if they win, they will turn against us."

Bishara visited Syria twice after the conclusion of the Lebanon war in September 2006, and warned that Israel might launch "a preliminary offensive in more than one city" in an attempt to resolve the country's internal crisis and regain deterrence capabilities.

Bishara and members of his party also visited Lebanon, where they told Lebanese Prime Minister Lebanese Prime Minister Lebanese that Hezbollah's resistance to Israel during the preceding summer's war had "lifted the Arab people's spirit." Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered an indictment of Balad MKs Bishara, Jamal Zahalka, and Wasil Taha after arriving in Syria shortly after.

During wartime, police questions regarding the suspected of assisting and passing information to the enemy during wartime, contacts with a foreign agent, and large sums of money transferred from abroad were all investigated. Bishara denied the allegations and said they were part of a conspiracy to punish him because he had condemned Israel's taking of Lebanon the previous summer.

Following a police probe into his foreign links and allegations of allegedly assisting the enemy during wartime and allegations of possibly assisting him during wartime, Bishara resigned from the Knesset in Cairo, as well as laundering funds earned from foreign sources. Bishara denied the charges, saying he was staying abroad because he was afraid he would not get a fair hearing in Israel.

Following a petition by Haaretz and other media outlets to lift a gag order prohibiting the release of details relating to the specific charges brought against Bishara, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court announced that the gag order would be fully lifted. The court had only allowed that Bishara was suspected of supporting the enemy in wartime, supplying details to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent, and money laundering to be disclosed one week ahead of.

Bishara has been accused of providing Hezbollah with information on strategic locations in Israel that should be defended with rockets during the 2006 Lebanon War in exchange for cash. The Israeli High Court of Justice had wiretaps approved. According to investigators, Bishara planned long-range rocket attacks, which would benefit Hezbollah's interests.

"Bishara was interrogated twice in the lawsuit, and during the last encounter, he told interrogators that he plans to leave Israel for a few days," a court statement says. On his return to Israel, he said he would attend a third question session.

In April 2007, Bishara addressed a rally of supporters in Nazareth via phone. "My shame is that I love my country," he told the thousands of followers; our intellect and our words are our weapons. "I never in my life did I draw a gun or kill someone."

Said Nafa, Bishara's replacement, pleaded with the allegations leading up to Bishara's resignation, adding that "There were several instances in which the Shin Bet tried to set people up..." They're just trying to depose a powerful Arab figure. They will fail." The Knesset passed the Bishara Law in 2008, which would prohibit anyone visiting an enemy state from voting in the Knesset. In 2011, the Knesset member's pension was canceled due to another new "Bishara Act."

Bishara has been instrumental in the formation of the Syrian National Coalition, the key Syrian opposition umbrella group that is backed by Qatar, according to the Financial Times. Bishara is said to have served as an advisor to Qatar's current emir and crown prince, who succeeded him in late June 2013. According to Bishara, Assad may have stayed in power if the people wanted, but rather "the regime refused to change, and so will people change it."

Bishara is married and has two children. He underwent a kidney transplant at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem in March 1997, according to The Jerusalem Post. He is a citizen of Qatar, according to his website.

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Awards

• The Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought for the year 2002 in Berlin.
• The Global Exchange International Human Rights Award for the year 2003 in San Francisco at the organization's annual ceremony.