29 Facts About Azmi Bishara

Azmi Bishara is an Arab-Israeli public intellectual, political philosopher and author.

Azmi Bishara is presently 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.

Azmi Bishara later established the Arab Students Union when at university.

Azmi Bishara was re-elected in 1999,2003 and 2006.

However, after visiting Lebanon and Syria in the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, Bishara became the subject of a criminal investigation for acts of alleged treason and espionage and was suspected of supplying targeting information to Hezbollah.

Azmi Bishara fled Israel, denying the allegations and refusing to return, claiming he would not receive a fair trial.

Azmi Bishara has since established himself in Qatar at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies as an academic and researcher.

Azmi Bishara was born in Nazareth into a Christian Arab family.

Azmi Bishara's mother was a school teacher and his father a health inspector and trade unionist with connections to the Communist Maki party; his siblings include Marwan and Rawia Bishara.

Azmi Bishara stated that he established the organisation because "the general national feeling among Arab students of the need to struggle against racist practices".

Azmi Bishara went on to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between 1977 and 1980, where he chaired the Arab Students Union and was a member of the Front of Communist Students-Campus.

Azmi Bishara has worked as a senior researcher at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

Azmi Bishara is one of the founders of the Society for Arab Culture and of Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy founded by a group of scholars and academics in 1992.

Azmi Bishara serves on the board of trustees of the Arab Democracy Foundation.

Azmi Bishara is presently the general director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, known as the Doha Institute, and a member of its executive board.

Azmi Bishara is an important adviser to former Qatar emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and to his successor, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad.

In 1995, Azmi Bishara was at the head of a group of young Israeli Palestinian intellectuals who founded the political party National Democratic Assembly, Brit Le'umit Demokratit in Hebrew, short Balad.

Azmi Bishara was planning to be the first Arab to run for Prime Minister in the 1999 election, but dropped out of the race two days before election day, leaving it as a contest between Ehud Barak and Benyamin Netanyahu, with Barak emerging victorious.

In 2003, the Central Elections Committee disqualified Azmi Bishara from running in the elections for the 16th Knesset, citing a new clause of the Basic Law: The Knesset which banned candidates who supported "armed struggle, by a hostile state or a terrorist organization, against the State of Israel", and referencing a speech made by Azmi Bishara in Syria where he called on Arab states to support Palestinian resistance.

Azmi Bishara predicted that, because many Arab Israelis opposed the war or applauded Hezbollah's surprisingly strong resistance to the Israeli invasion, there would be negative repercussions for the community when the war ended.

In 2007, Azmi Bishara was questioned by police on suspicion of aiding and passing information to the enemy during wartime, contacts with a foreign agent, and receiving large sums of money transferred from abroad.

Azmi Bishara denied the accusations and said they were part of an effort to punish him because he had opposed Israel's invasion of Lebanon the preceding summer.

On 22 April 2007, Azmi Bishara resigned from the Knesset via the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, following a police investigation into his foreign contacts, and accusations of allegedly aiding the enemy during wartime, passing information on to the enemy and contacts with a foreign agent, as well as laundering money received from foreign sources.

Azmi Bishara denied the allegations, and claimed he was staying abroad as he believed he would not receive a fair trial in Israel.

One week prior, the court had allowed only for the fact that Azmi Bishara was suspected of assisting the enemy in wartime, transmitting information to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent and money-laundering to be publicized.

Azmi Bishara was accused of giving Hezbollah information on strategic locations in Israel that should be attacked with rockets during the 2006 Lebanon War, in exchange for money.

Investigators say that Azmi Bishara recommended long-range rocket attacks which would serve Hezbollah's cause.

Azmi Bishara addressed a rally of supporters in Nazareth via telephone in April 2007.

Azmi Bishara reportedly served as an adviser to Qatar's then emir and crown prince, who succeeded his father in late June 2013.