Balad Chairman Azmi Bishara confirmed his intention to resign from the Knesset on Thursday, telling the Nazareth-based newspaper Hadith A-Nas that he is being persecuted.

"Despite what the mercenaries are writing, it was not the recent developments that pushed me to resign, but just to think again about it and the rules of the game," he said in an interview that will be published Friday.

"Is it possible for me to be called a Member of Knesset and be persecuted in this way?" he was quoted as saying.

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Bishara added that the decision was based on the fact that he has exhausted the parliamentary tools at his disposal. "I did what I could with the tools I had," he told the paper. "Eleven intense years are enough for me."

Bishara made similar statements to other Arab media outlets.

"I want to devote more time to things that interest me, like writing literature and meditation, and devoting more time to Arab issues," he said.

This is the first time that Bishara has directly responded to media reports of his intention to resign, which began surfacing at the beginning of the week. Balad has to date denied the reports.

Bishara addressed reports that he had originally intended to resign in September, but decided to wait until the passage of a law compensating polio victims, which was passed last month.

"We have become used to criticizing those who cling to their positions, not those who resign and clear the way for others to develop and advance the movement," he said.

It should be added that the newspaper A-Sinara reported that one of its correspondents spoke with Bishara at his Qatar hotel. According to the report, the receptionist connected the reporter to Bishara's room, but the MK terminated the call when he heard a voice he didn't recognize.

Bishara's wife and two children returned to Israel on Wednesday after a several-day visit to Jordan alongside the MK. Balad sources said the Bishara family's return proves that the party's chairman does not intend to flee the country or emigrate.

Earlier on Thursday, Balad party MKs Jamal Zahalka and Wasil Taha met with a Hadash party delegation headed by MK Mohammed Barakeh and updated them on the affair.

"No doubt the Arab public in Israel and its representatives are under attack and incited [against] beginning with the Shin Bet head's statements that the Arabs in Israel are a strategic threat," Barakeh said. "Police and Shin Beth are making cynical usage of legal restrictions in order to defame the Arab population as a whole."