Israel holding Palestinian journalist as 'terror' suspect

The Shin Bet said Monday that a Palestinian journalist arrested over the weekend belongs to a "terror group" after colleagues called for international support for his release.

Omar Nazzal, a member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), was detained by Israeli forces on Saturday at the border between the West Bank and Jordan. He was seeking to travel to a meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in Bosnia.

The Shin Bet service said in response to an AFP query that he had been recently appointed a director of Palestine Today, a TV channel it declared illegal in February, and was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- a leftist political party Israel accuses of terrorism.

"Omar has for years been known to be a Popular Front activist: he was arrested now because of his involvement in current Popular Front activities," Shin Bet said in a written reply. It said he was not detained because of his journalism but over "his involvement in terror group activities."