Police on Tuesday arrested Muhammad Barakeh, the former head of the Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, and a former Knesset member and deputy speaker, on suspicion of incitement tied to a speech he delivered in Ramallah in 2022. Officers transferred him to the Ariel police station for questioning after he had twice refused police summonses, which he rejected through the Adalah legal center, calling Ariel a “settlement occupation police” force. He was taken from his home in Shfaram under a court order, had his fingerprints taken, was photographed, and was questioned for four hours.
After the interrogation, Barakeh was brought before the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court. Police asked Judge Oded Morano to impose restrictive conditions, including bans on contact with people active in a terrorist organization, posting incitement or terror content online, leaving the country, and a passport deposit. Morano rejected the passport demand, citing the limits on liberty and freedom of movement, but barred Barakeh from entering Areas A and B in the West Bank for 30 days. The judge said the file showed “reasonable suspicion” of the alleged offense, even if it related to serious acts from 2022.
Barakeh’s lawyer, Khaled Azbarga, argued that his client was a political figure who gave a political speech protected by law, and said it was wrong to turn political expression by Arab representatives into incitement charges. The Higher Follow-Up Committee condemned the arrest as a “political, provocative investigation” and said it was another stage in a campaign to intimidate the Arab community and its legitimate political activity.
Adalah said it is considering an appeal against the release conditions and the seizure of Barakeh’s phones. It also claimed that right-wing lawmakers and settler groups had sought over the past three years to ban the Higher Follow-Up Committee, and that recent Knesset National Security Committee meetings in 2023, 2025, and two months ago showed the summons was backed by settler-linked government mechanisms. Jafar Farah of the Musawa Center also called the arrest unnecessary and political.
