Tel Aviv Court extends arbitrary detention of Palestinian journalist and political activist Abed Abu Shehadeh until Sunday 8 November 2026; Adalah to appeal

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court today, 4 November 2026, extended the detention of Abed Abu Shehadeh, a journalist and podcaster with Arab48 and Local Call, and a frequent contributor to +972 Magazine, and political activist from Jaffa, until Sunday, 8 November 2026. Some 15 Israeli police officers raided Abu Shehadeh’s home last night and arrested him.,The court granted the extension of his detention even though Abu Shehadeh’s interrogation focused exclusively on a pre-election interview he conducted with Dr. Azmi Bishara in Qatar. The police raised no other allegations before him.

At the hearing, Abu Shehadeh’s legal team argued that there was no justification for his continued detention. The interview, which addressed the Israeli election campaign and Palestinians, has been published and is publicly accessible.The very decision to open a criminal investigation over a media interview is a grave violation of freedom of expression and press freedom, and detaining him on that basis is wholly arbitrary. The defense further stressed that former Member of Knesset and former head of the Balad/Tajammu political party Dr. Azmi Bishara is not a “foreign agent,” and that an interview with him therefore cannot give rise to suspicion of any criminal offense.

Abu Shehadeh was represented by Adalah Attorney Hadeel Abu Salih, Attorney Afnan Khalifa of Human Rights Defenders Fund, and Attorney Fuad Sultany.

Attorney Abu Salih commented: “Abed Abu Shehadeh’s interrogation and detention concern a single interview. This is not a criminal investigation, it is a campaign to silence Palestinian journalists and political activists. The police are sending a message to the entire Palestinian public in Israel: even a public conversation with a political figure can land you in a detention cell. Abu Shehadeh must be released immediately.”